To Free the Bijū
by KingOuma
Summary: Naruto's sister was chosen for the sealing of it's chakra while Naruto had the soul. The Yondaime lived. Despite his talent and hard work, Naruto slowly faded into the background of his sister. "Do you wish to be free? Do you wish to be reunited with your family?"...Yes"Very well then. We will grow stronger, we will reunite your family and extinguish the idea of Jinchūriki."
1. The Apathy of a Family

Naruto never learned what the love of a family was. He decides that to never feel that way again, and to never let anyone feel the same he would create a better world. Under his own image.

To Free the Bijū

This story is based on the Fanfiction story 'God of Illusion, Wielder of the Devil's Arm' by Thanathos. If you wish to read his story, I recommend it, stop by his page and read it. He has already given me permission as long as I give him his much needed credit. I'm grateful to him for giving me a chance. Well, I by no means am forgetting my other story 'The Jinchūriki of Ten-Tails, but I recently saw the last movie and with another idea I had in my mind I proposed myself to invent this story. (Except for the parts that are Thanatos')

**IMPORTANT**

This one is something like the ones I've recently read of when Naruto has a brother or sister and they get the chakra while Naruto gets the Kyūbi per se. if you don't like this type of story I'm warning you now so you don't come back with some flames in the reviews. You can flame all you want of other things but this type of story has a darker Naruto, much darker. In fact this isn't a Dark Naruto at all, this is an Evil Naruto. (Dark= still part of Konoha, badass, all-powerful, etc. Evil= Not part of Konoha, doesn't care they die. Will actually be seen grow more powerful and not get a sudden boost. This story might not end with Konoha haven't every victory certain.)

I found out that making someone the bad guy is easier that finding a good personality, both here and real life, so this Naruto will be kind of the counterpart of my other Naruto. What this one is, the other isn't. I'm gonna write them as I please, maybe two chapters of this one, then three of the other one. But I want somebody to co-write this story with me. The other story only needs a proofreader and idea person (Not the same. You give me ideas, I decide which to put) and this one to have a co-writer (we both decide what to put and how the story goes, but like a company's stock market I get 51% of the share and really take your ideas.) if this person at some moment or other decides to leave and take part of their story to make one like this one then they can. Thanks to anyone that starts to read this one and would someone PLEASE REVIEW THIS ONE AND THE OTHER ONE! Thanks

So, onwards with the show.

"Hi" means talking

'_Hi' _means thinking

**_Hi means demonic/out worldly voices or thoughts_**

**HI** **means jutsu**

**(HI) means jutsu translation**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Finally the flashback is over and they can continue with the show. I sincerely hope that Sasuke doesn't go all: 'I will help the village. I won't betray my friends. Yadda yadda yadda." Because seriously, he's just scare that Naruto will beat him like the pussy he is. You are going to die Sasuke. Get. Over. It. Now go and kiss Orochimaru like gay boy you are. (I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST GAYS)**

* * *

On the night of October ten I great catastrophe came to the village, unaware and unprepared the village was attacked by the Nine-Tail Fox or Kyūbi. The village had suffered greatly and many where wondering when and where was their righteous leader to help save the all. To no one's notice the Yondaime was actually helping his wife through her delivery. He would have gone a long time ago, but he still needed to help bring out his son, he had come after their daughter and by the surprise of the Kyūbi being free and Kushina being weaken he stayed by her side until it was over. Kushina was too far gone, only her bloodline gave her the strength to keep her alive until help came. If he sealed the Kyūbi unto her she would die from the strain.

Weeks before the only thing he found out was that it was impossible to kill a bijū. There had been millions of tries, but not a single success. Sealing was possible, and ironically, it was his own specialty, but sealing a bijū got exponentially harder the higher up the hierarchy it was, and the Kyūbi stood at the very top. Then he found something in the forbidden section. It was a ritual that summoned the Shinigami himself, who then ripped the soul out of your enemy, marking you and devouring both your and the enemy's souls. A last-ditch effort. But what was the point in marking the user if he died along with his victim? Unless... it was a sealing!

Minato delved into his research with new vigor, and after confirming that it was indeed a sealing-ceremony, he started to make adjustments. Since it was a sealing, it should be possible to control where exactly the target was to be sealed. He knew that if he sealed the Kyuubi into an object, it wouldn't take a week and the beast was free once more, being far too strong to be locked in a teapot like the Shukaku. If an animal was used, the Kyuubi would take control before you could say "Oh shit", since no animal had the willpower or mentality required to keep it at bay. The only possibility was a human. Ideally, he would seal it in himself, and then drag them both to hell, but he wasn't sure if the Kyuubi had a trick that would allow it to escape the Shinigami's clutches. Any other adult was out too, seeing that an adult's, even a child's chakra-network was already too solidified to handle the sudden influx of chakra. The only thing that could adapt... was an infant_. 'Maybe divide it? It's possible? It follows the same principal, just gotta change the converter and filter. If I could it would be a huge blow for the Kyūbi, but to sacrifice my own two children for this? Not until I'm sure. Besides Kushina would kill me right now if I told her this.'_

Now Minato felt a new height of despair. He would not have hesitated for a second to sacrifice his own life, but to drag innocent lives into this? Especially since he knew that only two babies would be born in time for the sealing; his own.

Kushina's water had broken a few minutes ago. . He was going to have a son and a daughter. And he would have to seal the Kyuubi in them. Even if another mother gave birth early, Minato knew that he couldn't ask anyone to give up their child if he was not willing to give up his.

* * *

Kushina held her babies in her arms, smiling at both of them. . Naruto looked just like his father but with her red hair, while Tsunami was her spitting image, ironically with his blond hair. They were crying, and honestly she couldn't blame them, as she could feel the Kyūbi's chakra, the beast most likely approaching the gates at this moment. "Shh, it's okay. Don't worry, daddy will find a way to save the day, that's what your daddy does best. Tsunami, Naruto, it'll be fine."

Speak of the devil; there he came, with an expression appropriate for a funeral. This did not look good.

Minato looked at his wife, knowing this would be the last time he'd ever see her. He forced himself to smile. "Hello Kushina, how are you doing? Are the children alright?"

Kushina gave him a weak smile. "Tsunami and Naruto are just fine, and according to Biwako, I'm out of the woods. What about you? Did you find something?"

Minato nodded. "A few weeks ago I researched, and found out that while it's impossible to destroy the Kyūbi, I can seal it away. I know the jutsu and I've already designed the array."

Kushina smiled, relieved. "That's wonderful darling. Why do you look so down?"

Minato wished he could keep quiet, but he knew that would not only betraying Kushina, but that it simply wouldn't work. Still, how do you tell your wife that you will die sealing a monster into her children? "Well..."

Biwako looked at him. "There's a catch, isn't there?"

She had always been sharp, and as a medic, reading people was child's play. "Yes. There are two."

Kushina looked at him. "What are they?"

Minato gulped. "For the sealing to work, I... I need to sacrifice my life."

Kushina's eyes widened. "No." She whispered. "Tell me it's not true."

Minato glanced at her. "I can't. To seal the Kyūbi, I need to summon the Shinigami."

Kushina sobbed. "It's not fair! After all we've been through, after all we've lost, after the war, now that we finally came this far, it just ends like this? Now that we finally have children, they will never know their father? It's just not fair!"

Biwako looked at him, her eyes sympathizing, yet sharp. "Was that the other catch?"

Minato couldn't look her or Kushina in the eyes. "No." He finally whispered, his voice sounding as if he had fought down a sob.

Kushina was not really paying attention. After this news, what could be worse? Tsunade asked. "What is?"

Minato stared at the floor, his voice trembling. "The only thing that can hold, that could hope to keep the Kyuubi at bay, is..." He paused, having to gather all his strength not to break down in tears "...is an infant."

Kushina stared at him, wide-eyed. Then she pulled her children closer to her chest. "No." she stated, her panicked voice steadily increasing in volume. "No, you can't. Not them. NO! I WON'T LET YOU! NOT OUR CHILDREN! NO!"

Minato slammed his fist into the wall, tears now running down his face as well. "DO YOU THINK I WANT TO DO THIS?!" He shouted, before taking a deep breath. "Kushina, I've looked through every possible source. I've searched everywhere. If I seal the fox in an object, the object will break! If I seal it in an animal, the fox will take over! If I try to take it down with me, it may escape me, as it and I would have no time for our souls to connect, so I'd have no hold! And nobody with set chakra-coils could possibly survive the sealing! I arranged it so the chakra and soul dived! There is nobody else Kushina!" He grew quiet, small sobs escaping his lips. "There is nobody else."

Biwako hesitantly patted his back. This once again showed her that the title of Hokage was more of a burden and a curse than anything else, just like for her husband. Here stood a man, a loving husband and fresh father, who had to not only sacrifice his life in his best years, but damn his own child to house a demon. The job sucked, and that was it.

After nearly an hour, Minato left the room with the twins and a broken heart. He knew that he had to do it, but that didn't make him feel any better about it. If anything, it made him feel worse.

* * *

Minato stood on Gamabunta's head, staring at the fox who destroyed his happiness. He sighed. "You ready Gamabunta?"

The large toad snorted humorlessly. **_"Nobody is ever ready to face that one, but I'll buy you as much time as I can."_**

"Thanks. Tell Jiraya to get you a large bottle of sake, my treat." Minato stated.

The toad nodded. **_"Well then, LET'S GO!"_**

With that, the toad charged the possibly most dangerous beast on the planet, using his sword to deflect a tail. His entire tactic was based on 'hop around, slash it when you see an opening, don't get hit'. So far, it was working. He was just finishing the seal on his son when the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen appeared on his side.

"Minato, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to seal it! I found out a technique that can summon the Shinigami and by sacrificing my life I will seal it into my twins." His breath strained as he tried to design the seals as fast as possible."

"What!? Don't do this Minato; you are a father you can't just leave them so soon. What about Kushina?

"She know already! There's nothing else I can do…" He had finished the sealing just a few more seconds.

"Let me do it!" he said hurriedly.

"What?"

"I'm old, Minato. I won't be alive for much longer, let me do this, for all the sacrifices, for the village and for your family."

Minato stared in shock at him. "What about Biwako?"

"She will understand. It will be regretful that we won't be together in the afterlife, but she know that I love the village as much as I love her. She'll understand."

"Minato mulled over it for a few seconds, before slowly nodding his head. "Alright, here are the signs.

Sarutobi flashed through the last hand signs as Gamabunta took a hit, not enough to dispel him, but it would leave a scar over his eye. **_"Hurry! I can't keep her busy much longer!"_** The toad called.

But Sarutobi had already finished, the Shinigami was floating behind him. He looked at the fox and calmly spoke the words that would end his life. "_Shiki Fuin!_"

He felt like his chest was encased in ice as the Shinigami's arm shot out of his stomach, grabbing the Kyūbi, desperately struggling while Gamabunta kept it from escaping before disappearing with a poof, and somehow transforming it into red mist and a red liquid that it placed in Tsunami and Naruto's stomach respectably . The seal Minato had inscribed glowed, before fading away. It was over.

The moment when it all finished the Sandaime Hokage left this world. Returning to his abode he found the medic-nin healing his wife and telling him she would live. He told his wife and Biwako of what happened and although she was scared to leave her son with just the personality she trusted her husband to protect him as well as all of his family. Biwako had excused herself, no doubt going to mourn her husband.

Not long after the Yondaime Hokage appeared on balcony of the Hokage tower addressing all, both civilians and Shinobi. Kushina was in a wheelchair, cradling both her children. Tsunami bore three whiskers on her face, no doubt because of the Kyūbi's chakra, while Naruto's hair had surprisingly grown a bit, and his ears looking fox-like.

"Tonight, we have suffered greatly. Our forces have diminished with such an attack and those that we have sworn to protect have lost many members." He looked down towards his people each and every one of them with their spirits almost broken; he had to do something so that they would thrive once again. "The Kyūbi's attack might have hurt us, it might tell others that we have become weak and ripe for the taken" some actually looked back fearfully at him "but we all know that is not true. We are the great village of Konoha, are we not?" some were beginning to hear his speech, a light coming back to their eyes "We have thrived over many adversaries and always come on top. We have born and breed the strongest Shinobi and the gentlest civilians in the Elemental Nations. We have come on top in every which way: economy, military, culture and much more and we will come back stronger!" by this many had their heads held high and tears of pride falling in the ground. They had already put their fallen comrades on the pedestal, their sacrifice not in vain, now they wanted to surpass this. To make them proud for all that they protected. "We will show the other villages that we are not weak, that they will not push us around and that with this we will come back stronger!" Many were sporting smiles on their faces, cheering him on, praising his strong sense of duty. "Earlier today, one of the many sacrifices of this attack, the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen fell in the line of battle, but he didn't fall for the Kyūbi's attack, no he fell to seal the Kyūbi." Once again the crowd had fallen into an eerie silence, some looking confused and others sad at the news. "I will tell you the truth. The Kyūbi is a mass of chakra, it can be killed, but it will not die. It would be reborn again sometime later, that is why instead of killing it with his help and sacrifice I made a seal, to which most of you know I'm very experienced with, and using his abilities we sealed the Kyūbi."

The masses were happy to learn that the monster was gone. There happy persona trusting undyingly at their Hokage to keep it at bay. "Were was it sealed? Shouldn't we destroy it this way?"

The Hokage shook his head. "No, if it was done that way it may come back and in fit of anger attack us again." The crowd looked fearfully at him "That is why… I have sealed it into my newborn twins"

Many gasped at this. Most were at him in disbelief_. 'The Hokage sacrificed his own twins?'_ the thought running in their voices and minds. "I couldn't dare to ask any other person to do so with their children when I couldn't with mine. So with the Sandaime's help I have sealed its chakra into my first-born daughter and the Kyūbi himself into my son. This way the Kyūbi is not a danger to us all and we gain a valuable ally in my daughter's strength. With her properly trained she will be a force to be reckon and show those other villages the WILL OF FIRE CONTINUES!"

Many were silent as they digested the information. The daughter of the Yondaime would be somebody to protect her village from any threat. Somewhere in the crowd a few started to clap and that put in swing an effect as every person, man or child, woman or daughter, and all Shinobi and civilians alike started cheering and chanting _'Yondaime! Yondaime!' _when the crowd slowed their chanting somewhere in the crowd a person asked. "What are their names?"

Minato smiled at this. "Their names are my first-born Tsunami and my son Naruto."

The crowd started once again chanting their names _'Tsunami! Naruto!'_ slowly but surely more villagers chanting more and more Tsunami's name until the only one heard was here name.

Minato felt wonderful. His family was complete, he was alive and his twins were seen as the hero that they were. And for a moment he had been worried that they would be unable to tell the difference between the jailer and the prisoner. He should never have doubted his people. And even though revealing both his marriage and status as a parent may be slightly risky, Minato was not worried.

He had stared both Kyuubi and the Shinigami himself in the face and had somehow managed to make it out. What human did he have to fear? Iwa and Kumo would be too worried that if they attacked the children, their parents would retaliate and bring repeats of the humiliating defeats the war had brought them and their countries. In fact, it was more likely that new alliances would sprout like mushrooms. He would have to deflect the proposals to his children, but somehow, that didn't really seem all that threatening compared to what he had been through. No, the future of his family was very bright.

It's fascinating how a man can at the same time be so right and yet so wrong. This is the moment where the Domino effect started and the repercussions to Konoha in years later came to.

* * *

Kushina looked at the two babies that were peacefully sleeping, finally. They were incredibly tiring, as much as she loved those two, her husband was currently busy organizing the rebuilding of Konoha, and so looking after the kids fell completely to her.

She was thanking god that at least Naruto was a quiet child who only cried when he really needed something, as Tsunami was a bundle of energy that couldn't be let unsupervised for even a single second. She permanently crawled around, never remaining in the same spot, and she cried more often in ten minutes than Naruto did in a normal week. Kushina suspected the Kyūbi's chakra was at least partially responsible for the exhausting amounts of energy Tsunami possessed.

Still, her life was going well. She had survived giving birth, her husband had survived something nobody was supposed to survive, and their children were healthy. What more could a mother ask for? Well, maybe that he children got along a little better. They were eight months old, and seemed to get along fairly well, although Tsunami was clearly the more dominant one of the two, except for the odd night.

* * *

Naruto was just over 4 years old when he first understood that there was a difference between him and his sister. Of course there were differences, he was a boy and she was a girl, they had different likes and dislikes, liked to play with different toys, stuff like that. But while Tsunami had never been sick a day in her life, his health was as normal as one of Uzumaki blood, with the occasional cough. Their father had of course explained that Tsunami had the mighty Kyūbi's chakra sealed inside of her, and that it gave her increased healing and better health, while Naruto had its soul inside him. That made it all the more puzzling for Naruto why Natsuki screamed as if tortured whenever she scraped her knee. Naruto usually tried not to cry when it happened to him, and just went to his parents, most of the time mommy, something she seemed happy about, since she always called him a 'big boy'.

Walking down the street a sight for many was shown. The Yondaime Hokage Minato Namikaze along his wife Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze and their twins Tsunami and Naruto were seen. The children were walking side by side, proof of their unity for one and another, the girl animatedly talking with her parents of her days work while the boy waited patiently for her to finish. Except for his red hair that contrasted her blond one, both could be said to be the reincarnation of their parents, him calm and collected, always respectful, her brash and bubbly as well as high-spirited. Her attitude sometimes causing her problems that otherwise her brother would resolve and take care of her for, and being fraternal twins both were of almost the same height, with her toppling by one and a half inches.

"And then, and then we raced all the way around the shore of the lake but only I came first! Nii-san came second as always and everybody else behind. I was the only one that wasn't tired and could keep running!" such were the collective stories the girl would tell, never having a clue that her parents had obviously taken to use shadow clones to guard them and knew of said adventures.

"That's very good Tsunami, I'm very proud of you! Just for that you get a treat for that, how about some ramen for dinner today?"

"Yes mom!"

But only now, that they had left the compound together as a family for the first time did Naruto really understand that there was a large difference between him and his sister. Now that Naruto thought about it, as long as he could remember, he and Tsunami had never been out of the compound at the same time, so when he had been outside before, people had smiled at him, and he had thought they'd do the same for his sister, and he was right. What he didn't expect was that they completely overlooked him while his sister was there.

Nobody seemed to notice he existed anymore, as everyone rushed to get a look at his sister. Naruto didn't really mind not been gawked at by strangers, and actually had a bit of sympathy for his sister that was caught in the center of this human maelstrom, until someone, in his hurry to get a look at 'the Savior of Konoha' ran into him, actually sending him flying with a surprised shout. The muddy ground prevented any serious injuries, but his formerly orange yukata now had large patches of brown. He sniffed. He had liked that yukata.

Minato noticed that the tug on his leg had vanished, and looked down, only to find that Naruto was not there, but a good four feet away, rubbing his head while unhappily looking at his ruined yukata. He saw the man that had run him down, his shinobi-instincts having ensured that he recalled the face of a man who had rushed by him a little too close. He spotted said civilian merchant, elbowing his way through the crowd, and pulled him back by the collar.

"Hey, what's the big...? Oh, Hokage-sama, what can I do for you?" The merchant had turned ashen when he realized he'd shouted at the leader of his village.

Minato was annoyed. "Well for one thing, you can apologize for knocking my son into the dirt and pay for the cleaning of his yukata."

The merchant's eyes darted around until he saw Naruto, covered in dirt. Lord in heaven, he had ran the son of the Yondaime over! He wouldn't be able to sell a thing for the next week! "I'm sorry; I was elsewhere with my thoughts. Of course I will take responsibility for this, the cleaning is on me. If there is anything else I can do..."

Minato gave him a cold look, and the merchant shrank away. "You will get the bill in the next days. And that was an expensive yukata, if the stains don't go out, you're replacing it."

Of course the talk between the Hokage and the merchant had attracted attention, and Kushina and Tsunami now noticed Naruto was still sitting in the dirt. Tsunami blinked, pointed at her brother, and laughed. It wasn't really any bad intention, he just looked so funny.

Naruto stared at his sister, then at his own clothing, and even though he didn't think it was that funny, he had to laugh too. Kushina shook her head, shooed her children back to the compound to get changed while Minato headed to a bakery to get something sweet that his family could eat together, to cheer up his son after that unfortunate event.

* * *

A few months later, the family sat together at dinner. Kushina cooked the family's favorite meal, ramen. Tsunami gobbled down the ramen faster than one could blink, while Minato and Kushina, while eating more civilized, were only slightly slower in their decimation of the meal. Only Naruto ate slower, savoring each bite before swallowing it. That was also the reason he had just finished his first bowl, while all others were at least on bowl four.

"Mom, can I please have a..." Naruto started, only to be interrupted by Tsunami.

"MOM, REFILL!" She shouted happily.

Kushina sighed. "Young lady, how many times do I have to tell you not to shout?" Still, she took the pot and poured more into Tsunami's bowl, before looking into the pot with a frown on her face. "Well, that was the last of it."

Naruto blinked. It wasn't fair! He loved ramen just as much as anybody else in his family did! Tsunami was eating her undeserved ninth filling, he had just finished his first, and _she_ got the last bowl?! Whenever Naruto interrupted somebody, his mother told him that that was rude, why was it okay for his sister?

Naruto calmed himself. It was to be expected. Naruto was unusually smart for his age, and he had already noticed that his parents seemed to love Tsunami a little more than they loved him. He wasn't beaten or hated; it was just subtle things that gave it away. They just always cared a little more for Tsunami than for him. He knew that parents sometimes had favorites amongst their children, and that Tsunami was important because she carried the Kyūbi's chakra, but couldn't at least one of his parents love him more?

Minato normally tired and damming all that was paperwork found this moments endearing for his family and himself. He began notice that his daughter was beginning to grow at an exceptional rate and soon he would induce her into the training for her to become a ninja. His son Naruto came behind her, he was good in his own right, calculative, and analytical; if it wasn't because he also had Tsunami he would have thought he was really a Nara. But he wished to wait until he came unto a certain point so that the training would truly commence.

"Kushina, I think it's time." She looked at him, wondering what he was thinking before it clicked in her mind.

"Really? You think so? I don't know…" by this both twins were confused at their expressions and wanted to know what was wrong

"What do you mean father?" Naruto the always courteous one asked

"I believe that in a few weeks we can start your ninja training."

Both twins widened their eyes at hearing this. "Really! Oh thank you daddy! Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is awesome! The others are also starting their training and I was gonna go crazy if you didn't say so soon." Her voice carrying over a few decimals but holding the usual joy that she was.

"Yep, your mother and I will take turns showing you what are the ways of our clans and little by little you'll grow up stronger and stronger until you surpassed your mother and me." Maybe it was the day's work for his father, maybe he was just tired, maybe his mother just wasn't listening well in to the conversation, but Naruto could see it. The moment his father finished talking, those words weren't directed at both of them. No, those words were directed at Tsunami. He would have thought that it was just fluke, that his father would at any second remember his son and look at him and smile that smile that said he wasn't forgotten, but… it never came. He just looked at his father the whole time they ate expecting those simple words to be told right back at him, but once again the y didn't come.

Kushina looked at him. "What were you saying, Naruto?"

Naruto blinked. "Nothing." He stood up, pushed his chair in, placed his bowl in the sink, and left.

Kushina looked at Minato, who gave her a helpless shrug. Tsunami was busy with her bowl, ignorant to the rest of the world.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes, and immediately felt miserable. The glance down was just a formality for him to know that Tsunami had sneaked into his bed during the storm last night. So he probably had a few hours before it got really bad.

Then he noticed the door to his room was open, and his parents were looking at them, doubtlessly finding it incredibly cute.

Fortunately Tsunami woke up, saw her parents, and rushed out of the room. Naruto looked at his mother. "Mom, can't you tell her to stop it?"

His mother blinked. "Why? It's cute, and I like seeing that my children care for each other this much. Most children climb into their parents' bed when they're scared, not their brother's. I'm almost jealous. "

Naruto grimaced. "You shouldn't be mom, it hurts. Every time she sleeps here, I wake up feeling awful."

Kushina frowned. He always said that, and there was nothing wrong with him. She had even gone to a doctor the first times he claimed it hurt, and the man had told her that nothing was wrong, aside from a cold. "You know, I can understand that you think it makes you look less manly sleeping with your sister, but that's no reason to make up stories. As punishment for telling lies, you'll weed the garden." She knew it wasn't that much of a punishment, as Naruto enjoyed working in the garden.

Naruto opened his mouth in protest. "But mom..."

Kushina stopped him before he could say more. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, I suggest you be quiet before you make your punishment worse than it has to be."

Naruto closed his mouth, got dressed and marched towards the garden, past a smug-looking Tsunami.

The storm had not completely passed, and Naruto spent the last quarter of his time in the garden soaking in icy-cold rain, determined to finish the task, no matter how unfair it was to be punished for telling the truth.

He spent the next days in bed with a high fever.

* * *

It was Naruto's and Tsunami's fifth birthday. Normally they visited all the different clans that day, spending time and getting presents with each one before moving on, taking the children and those adults who wanted with them until they finally reached the festival that was held annually to celebrate the defeat of Kyūbi. At midnight they launched fireworks that lasted over an hour, with all children being excused from school the next day so that they could watch them. But because Naruto had just recovered from a heavy fever, Kushina and Minato decided that it might be better if they asked the guests to come to their house instead, so that Naruto would only travel to the festival and back, to not completely exhaust him.

Naruto smiled happily as he took congratulations from all sides, and even got to cut the cake. He gave his sister an extra-large piece with three strawberries on top, as it was her favorite kind of cake, although the congratulating masses didn't leave any time for the twins to actually exchange words.

Naruto opened his pile of presents, being happy for each one and not at all jealous of his sister. He knew that his sister would get more presents than him, as everyone in the village seemed to want to send her a present. He was happy with what he got. From his father a blunt set of kunai and shuriken next to a big bag of sweets, while his mother gave him a shiny wooden sword for training, as they would start with Shinobi-training after their birthday, which really was the biggest present he could ask for, well, aside from the free-meal-coupon Ichiraku's ramen had sent him. Tsunami got the same gifts, plus a few more, and was loudly cheering in happiness.

After the gifting and the meal, it was decided that Minato would activate the security-seals to keep uninvited guests out and over-enthusiastic kids in, before the two age-groups separated. The adults stayed in the house, talking boring grown-up talks, while the children got to play in the yard and training-grounds, after they had made sure there were no forgotten pointy things lying around. It was a warm, sunny day, so the children were only too happy to oblige.

Naruto had lost himself in a book he was given as a present, so he was surprised that when he looked up no one his age was near him. He left the sanctuary of the chair he sat in and made his way to the backyard where he heard voices. He was surprised at the position of the Sun; it seemed a few hours had passed. When he looked back towards the ground a little piece of him fall apart. In the backyard he watched his sister and all of their friends training and playing around. He was forgotten once again. None looked at him when he opened the door to the backyard, none even registered his presence. All were around his sister, playing, making fun of each other and the girls even gossiping about Kami-knows-what.

In the back of his mind a fleeing thought passed on how could his parents once again forget him. But Naruto didn't notice, he didn't care for that. He wanted to know why they hadn't told him about this. Sure he sometimes enjoyed more to read a book than play, but many were shy, the Hyūga princess and Aburame heir where among the ones. Why wasn't he told?

He put the thought s aside, confident to join the playing, to join his friends and maybe get answers. "H-Hey guys, how's it going?" they seemed to not hear him. So he tried once again, louder this time. "Guys?! Tsunami?! Are you listening to me?" once more they were on their on world. He got fed up and yelled. "Tsunami!" That got them to stop. Tsunami looked back to him, a small smile appearing on her face, yet it was somehow different from always. It seemed wrong.

"Naruto, where've you been?"

"I was reading some stuff in a book I was given."

"Jeez, little whirlpool your always such a bookworm, can't you do anything else than study?" Some of them snickered at the nickname.

He scowled at that, she usually did it in private, her little joke. "It was about Genjutsu, I found it interesting."

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter, anyways what's everyone doing? You didn't tell me our friends were back here. No one said so." A few had the decency to look sheepish

"Oh, come on, little whirlpool, it's not their fault. Dad arranged it."

"And what about me?"

"I don't know. Same as always, he thought I should be first" Naruto scowled at the jab. "You know I'm more social than you, he just didn't want to wait and wished to get me something to occupy my time, until you got your sorry butt in gear." A few chuckled at that he sent a glare that shot them up, but Tsunami didn't notice.

"The only reason you are more social than me is because you barely practice your katas before dad starts training us next month and go hang around with them. And you can't say that you are better than me at training because if I remember correctly I'm better than you in Kenjutsu katas." The jab felt like a punch to her. She didn't like it when he brought that up. It was one of the few things he really was better than her. Their mother started teaching them a few months ago and when Tsunami found that her brother was better than her and her without progress she demanded to train katas in another thing and her mother complied, much to the shock of Naruto, who always believed his mother was on his side. They didn't touch the bamboo swords again.

Tsunami suddenly clapped her hands, pulling the attention to her. "I just wanted to say something. Thanks for coming!" The children cheered and smiled at her, but Tsunami wasn't done. "Wait, wait. The second thing is, because Naru-nii said something mean about me, I'm not going to play with anyone who plays with him!"

She didn't like it that he was making her look bad in front of their friends so she wanted to get revenge, no matter how hypocritical she was being as she had done the same not long ago. She turned towards their friends and clapped her hands. "Did everyone hear him? Little whirlpool is being a stuck-up and bullying me, we are twins and he's being mean so anyone that thinks he speaks the truth I'm not gonna play with them anymore, they can all be friends with my brother the bully."

Naruto looked in shock at his sister. Never once had he done something so out of place as bullying her, sure he said things to shut her up when she commented about him, but never bully. He looked around many had faces like a deer caught in headlights. Looking back and forth, it didn't seem like much of a contested, with the way she phrased it, anyone that took his side would be by association a bully and besides she was the more outgoing one of was no competition which one they wanted to spend more time with. The crowd started walking in her direction, no more than two or three looked behind them to send an apology, although the general opinion was that Naruto deserved what he got if he was being mean, leaving Naruto standing alone, gaping like a fish. He could not believe his sister had just done that. He knew she wasn't happy that he said that her crawling into his bed hurt him, but it was true!

Naruto looked more shocked that they listened to her. Never once giving him the doubt of being like that, at that moment their father came back outside sorting the refreshments and some chips for them on the table. He didn't look back at Naruto; he just continued to look forward, focused on how the kids kept playing without a care in the world, all but one. Because he was forgotten.

The next two or three hours, Naruto made multiple attempts to play with the other kids, but they sent him away. He tried to talk to Tsunami, but his sister ignored him completely. Eventually, Naruto just gave up, sitting alone in front of the small, shallow pond on the grounds, flipping rocks over its surface.

When the parents came to take their kids to the festival, Naruto said he was tired and didn't want to go. His parents assumed that it was because of his fever and allowed him to go to bed, leaving him some medicine and tea he later poured down the drain, while the rest of the children headed off to the festival, Tsunami being the only one who felt a slight twinge of guilt from her brother's absence, before the festival washed those thoughts away.

She spent the evening at different stalls playing games and winning toys with her friends, falling asleep at the end of the fireworks and being carried home. Naruto had long since cried himself to sleep at that point,

* * *

Weeks later as promised by their father and mother a training set was shown for inducing them into Shinobi life. He hoped it was for both of them; lately his father had more time for his sister than him. Sure it was little things at first, like speaking or asking her something and forgetting to integrate Naruto into the conversation, but Naruto being Naruto, just took it in stride and simply read books, he had on his person. Then came when his father only made barely enough food for four, with Tsunami having the Kyūbi's chakra she needed more energy to keep up with the process of transforming the chakra into hers. She hadn't notice, neither did his mother, but he did. Then on the days when their parents were picking them up from a friend's house, they would barely wait for him, once again, he took it in stride. They hadn't forgotten him, just that they walked faster that he did. That was what he told himself, nothing farther than the truth.

Today would be the day they would be inducted into their training regimen. Tsunami was jumping up and down barely containing her glee. She was sure that she would make them proud, nothing but the best for her parents. Their parents then ask Tsunami to step out to the backyard. A simple terrace made in white marble. The door opened to a corner of said terrace, four feet away from the door a diamond-shape pool with three feet deep on the shallow part and almost six on the deeper side were the south edge of the diamond ended. At the right end from their side a few toys and chair were placed to accommodate their needs and friends whenever they came. On the left side a small passage came to a large rectangular table made out redwood where their parents were waiting for them on the benches on either side while on the shorter side simple reclining chairs waited.

"Good you're here. I was beginning to think you didn't want the training." Their father said with a hidden smirk.

"No way daddy, I've been waiting for this since you promised me. I'm doing this, not even little whirlpool would stop me." A small tick appeared on Naruto's forehead. Jeez, just because she was born first didn't mean he was anything worse or smaller than her. Ok maybe she was taller than her, but he got the intelligent side of the deal, if anything went by as example of their lives.

"Tsunami, unless the next time you get stuck on a 30 foot tree and no way out you wish to stay there, shut it or a won't help you."

"Waa, daddy did you hear that? He said he wouldn't help me for anything!"

A small frown made its way into the Hokage's face. "Naruto" that voice was stern, never had Naruto heard his father use it against him. "How can you say something like that? Apologize to Tsunami this instant, how can it be that a brother wouldn't help his own sister."

_'What?! How the heck did it come to this?_' She had made fun of him and like always he responded with a witty retort. It was a first, but it wasn't shocking to the young blond. For some reason he couldn't hope but to believe it would be just like that for some more time.

"I'm sorry?" From the corner of his eye he saw Tsunami smirk at his predicament and looking at his mother he could see that she wasn't even listening to their conversation.

"Good. Now here I have the training list for you to do. While I'm working on the tower and your mother is here, she will teach you everything she knows about chakra, its components, how to mold it, how to control it, and how many different types of chakra there are. By her side thanks to a bloodline their seems to be certain aspects that differ from other clans and people, she will explain and show you guys and maybe verify if any one of you has these abilities. When I'm here I will show you how to use chakra, the training parts and using it. The control exercises and we will start on also exercising your bodies. By the time you reach the Academy you'll be better than any of your classmates!" Once again Naruto notice it. His father wasn't looking at them, he was looking at her. Tsunami, the same as always horded all the attention, she didn't care and it seem to make her ego bigger than it was.

"Oh, and what about mom's sword style? I wanna train in it like her."

His father chuckled. "If your mother finds you worthy and good at it, and wants to I don't see why not. That's all up to her." All eyes turning to her, she made an annoyed look at him she knew her daughter was not ready for the style, she may never be.

"We'll see. First all off this, then Kenjutsu." She said.

"Yes! Now come on I want to start!"

"Hai, hai." Being pulled by his daughter they made their way further into the backyard were their training field was. Kushina followed, she also barely gave him a glance.

* * *

Naruto was pissed. Sure anybody that looked once at him wouldn't notice, he had a poker face that would rival an ANBU mask, set in stone. In his eyes it was another story, they looked pissed, annoyed and angry. He was sure that another second of that and he would have lashed out at anybody within 5 feet. The reason: he was forgotten in any sense of the word, however you wanted to express, the truth was, no matter how you put it, he was forgotten. His 'father'as he would call him in his presence had once again started training his sister before he had return to his home. His mother had to take a deep undercover mission that would last a few months, depending on any hassle. They were now six years old. His stature was now on par with his sister but he was sure that she would surpass him once again she hit puberty. But that didn't matter to him, he would catch up. It was the fact that thanks to _'her'_ he couldn't do anything he usually did. His father had taken to sending a shadow clone to the tower, while he was with them, and personally train Tsunami in her glorious and spectacular way. Once again it didn't faze him much; she really needed the help with Ninjutsu because of her huge chakra pool. It almost rivaled her fathers, but with the little control she had she constantly over saturated her jutsu. When they first did the Tree Climbing Exercise, she had fallen on almost every part of her body, repeatedly whining that it wasn't working, while Naruto did it in less than twenty tries thanks to his smaller pool. She had been furious, saying he was cheating and once she had it basically down, she asked to move to another thing without practicing. Their father complied but Naruto declined, he wanted to perfect it.

Once he finished doing so for one whole hour, he then started using the katas his mother showed them for another hour, and then he did the same leaves on every joint in his body, face and neck. Afterwards he did the same spinning them and moving them up and down his body. When his mother caught him doing such a thing she had been impressed and told him to try with pebbles, and just when she was going to explain more ways to do so, her daughter yelled for her, forgetting momentarily of what she was talking and saying that she would come back, suffice to say she didn't come back.

He did so, with pebbles then stones and everything in between. When he was satisfied he move on towards Water Surface Walking Practice, his sister had done fairly better in this one since she had bundles of chakra, and yet he did it faster than her, which irked her to no end. Their father to please her started training her in a few simple E-rank jutsu: the **Body Replacement Jutsu** and the **Transformation Jutsu**, the Clone Jutsu was out of her reach with such crappy control and once again she wailed and whined until her father promised to train her in the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**. Naruto, kept it inside, not wanting to express his thought on the matter, experience had shown that doing so would have a reprimand on his father's part. Once more, he did the same on the Water Surface Walking Practice as he did on the Tree Climbing Exercise and even found that it seems easier than anything else, perhaps he had a Water-affinity, because he was pretty sure that no matter what, his feet should get wet when he walked on the water, yet when he reached the shore they were as dry as sand. He had decided to keep quiet about it, no doubt another thing his sister would complain about and he didn't want the attention on him.

No what irked him, was that he had gone to the Library, looking up on Genjutsu practice, sure he was only six years old, but his mind had so many ideas and so many ways to incorporate them into Genjutsu that he wished to experiment on, when he wanted to leave the librarian had actually the galls to stop and him and call him a thief, he had told her that he wasn't and that he just wanted info on Genjutsu, she snorted at that saying children wouldn't comprehend such material. He retorted saying he was smarter than he let on. When she said she would call the police he told her that he was the Hokage's son. She laughed, _laughed, _at him calling him a liar and saying that only Lady Tsunami was born and she hadn't heard of any boy being the Hokage's son. He started yelling, losing his cool, something he had never done in his life, and was thrown out of the library.

That was the boiling point. He had a plan to break into the library at night and thanks to knowing the Shinobi schedule for their patrolling, he had it all planned out. So when he arrived at his home he felt a piece of him fall apart, watching his 'father' and his sister practicing her **Shadow Clone Jutsu. ** She seemed to have a better grasp in control as she barely summoned a hundred. He talked to her for a few minutes; Naruto barely heard what he was saying before he saw _it._ The **Rasengan**. Naruto wasn't stupid, he knew what this meant. His father was going to teach her one of his most precious Jutsu! HE DIDN'T CARE NARUTO WASN'T THERE! He left, he couldn't see this. He would throw himself into planning the heist. Carefully observe the patrol, to watch if any shifted or if an individual did something out of the norm.

This was the first shift that happened in his unfair life. The one of many dominoes that would come tumbling down. Possibly one of the most influential, one that at a deep glance you could see how his irises shifted elongating, turning from black to red while the rest of his eyes blue. They may have noticed his ears looking more refined and the low, almost imperceptible growl that escape from his throat. The Kyūbi was awakening.


	2. The Ignorance of a Family

To Free the Bijū Ch. 2

This story is based on the Fanfiction story 'God of Illusion, Wielder of the Devil's Arm' by Thanathos. If you wish to read his story, I recommend it, stop by his page and read it. He has already given me permission as long as I give him his much needed credit. I'm grateful to him for giving me a chance. Well, I by no means am forgetting my other story 'The Jinchūriki of Ten-Tails, but I recently saw the last movie and with another idea I had in my mind I proposed myself to invent this story. (Except for the parts that are Thanatos')

Reviews:

-Shadow, he won't be killing people unreasonably, he will always have a reason. That being said. I don't plan to make him neutral. He definitely won't stand with Konoha.

-to the first guest of the story, thanks for the review, although I didn't understand your second-last sentence. And don't worry he will have them.

So, onwards with the show.

"Hi" means talking

'_Hi' _means thinking

**_Hi means demonic/out worldly voices or thoughts_**

**HI** **means jutsu**

**(HI) means jutsu translation**

**Disclaimer: To all those that have written a fanfiction using others' work as their base: Couldn't you have told me how difficult it was?! I mean, with both my prewritten idea, and his already done chapters I have had a hard time, a really hard time figuring out how to introduce components of my idea into his. Now before you go saying: Well then why are you doing this or why just not separate them both? Because I don't want to, his story left a big imprint on my head and it's because of how he portrays the story that I want to emulate those first chapters of mine in his image. Oh well what do you know? I just got my spunk back. Thank you readers. **

* * *

Naruto grunted as he was slammed against the ground. He quickly pushed himself on all fours and kicked his left leg behind him. A huff told him he hit the target. He jumped to his feet, but his attacker had already recovered. Naruto blocked five punches and sent three back, before a knee to the gut forced him on his knees.

"That's enough, both of you." Minato's voice rang out. Tsunami jumped back, while Naruto struggled a bit before getting up.

"Good job you two. Especially you, Tsunami. I'm surprised, most girls are weaker than boys."

Tsunami puffed her chest, while Naruto growled. "Well most girls don't have a demon in them that make them stronger."

Minato gave him a look. "Naruto..."

"What? It's true Biwako-san said so herself, remember?"

Minato couldn't argue with that. He had asked if Biwako could come over and check the children, to make sure there were no complications that could interfere with the beginning of their Shinobi-training. There had been nothing, a few unusual spots in Naruto, but nothing really troubling. However, Biwako had discovered that the Kyūbi's chakra, minuscule amounts of it seeping into Tsunami, was strengthening her bones and muscles, making her stronger and tougher than the average boy her age. She had said that while Naruto and Tsunami had been present, although honestly speaking only Naruto had paid attention to her.

"Yes, it's true, but that doesn't mean you should rub it in." Minato admitted.

Naruto nodded. "Yes, it does, otherwise she'll treat it like a personal accomplishment. Father, be honest. If Tsunami was a normal girl, heck, if she was a normal boy, who would have won?"

Minato sighed. "You Naruto, and don't swear. Tsunami, your brother has a point. In the entire spar, you never once dodged or blocked a single attack, you just took them and kept on striking, quickly forcing Naruto, who did dodge _and_ block, into the defensive."

Tsunami blinked. "So? It didn't hurt and I still won."

Minato looked at her. "That's true, but this was a bare-handed spar. In real combat against experienced enemies, you'll almost always be fighting someone with a weapon, if only a kunai. And if you fight them the way you fought your brother, you'll be cut to ribbons before you can inflict any damage. Even the Kyūbi's chakra can't heal you if you have a knife in your chest or lost your head. Your strategy is just dashing out hits and relying on the fox's chakra to fix anything that happens to you. While that is okay now, it has to change. Your mother says that in sword-training, Naruto beats you every time."

Tsunami was insulted. "Only because mom always calls the matches before anything happens."

Minato frowned. "No, she calls the matches when one side gets a hit that would either cripple or kill them if you were using real swords. Naruto just uses openings to hit those places."

Tsunami shook her head. "Nuh-uh, she called matches when Naruto hit my shin or arms."

Minato looked at her. "Well you can't fight without arms and feet, can you?"

Tsunami pouted, before finally admitting "No."

Minato ruffled her hair. "See, was that so hard?" Tsunami's face clearly stated YES, but Minato didn't notice. "Now, let's move on to jutsu-practice."

Tsunami's face brightened, while Naruto grimaced. Tsunami loved learning and using new jutsu, which she did incredibly fast, while Naruto always took longer. The secret of Tsunami's success of course once again lay in the fact that simply because the Kyūbi's chakra was sealed inside of her, Tsunami had unnaturally large chakra-reserves. She could go on when Naruto had to take breaks, and more importantly, she could afford to use five times the chakra needed to get the jutsu to work, while Naruto had to work on his control to get it to work. Of course Naruto tried to tell her that if she could train more in her control she wouldn't need so much chakra, but she dismissed him stating that she would never run out from it. . Of course, that also meant that Naruto could stand and expertly move on liquid surfaces by now, while Tsunami was incapable of merely walking up a tree and instead needed a running start.

While in truth Tsunami was upset when she saw her brother walk over water or just walk up vertical surfaces to avoid her, she saw no need to better her control, as she had no problems doing the jutsu they were taught. Any attempts of Naruto to state otherwise were perceived as bullying, and his parents didn't take his side in those arguments either, going with the old line _'Any problem that I can safely ignore is not a problem'_, meaning that as long as Tsunami could do the jutsu, they were happy. To their parents' defense, he and his sister were six, but Naruto still couldn't see what was wrong at pointing out a problem before it became a habit and even harder to correct.

What Naruto loved was Genjutsu. He discovered that with his good control, which he regularly practiced, and his very creative mind, they just came naturally to him. Kushina had taught them the basics, but with Tsunami unable to dispel even the most basic ones and endlessly complaining, she had, much to Naruto's chagrin, decided to drop Genjutsu until they were a bit older and, in Tsunami's case, more mature.

Naruto had been upset with the sudden loss of his passion as a lesson, and wandered the village for a few hours. By coincident, he had met a member of the Kurama-clan, who were known for their skills with Genjutsu, and asked him for pointers. He had to invite the older boy to dango, something his savings still hadn't completely recovered from, but he had gotten his tip. In fact, that tip would be one of the biggest impacts in young Naruto's life.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

"Genjutsu" the Kurama had said "is different from any other jutsu, no matter if Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu or Fūinjutsu. You see, with all of those, you can easily learn from a master, and with talent, you may even surpass him using what he taught you. You may become a Taijutsu-master using only Taijutsu you were taught by others, just as you can easily become a Ninjutsu-master using only jutsu that others created, as long as you have sufficient chakra, talent, affinity, and of course determination. Genjutsu however is fundamentally different. No matter how hard you work or how talented you are, you will never surpass your master using what he has taught you."

Naruto had looked at him. "Why not?"

The man had smiled. "Simple. Genjutsu is a jutsu that relies on one's imagination to work. The hand signs are something used by beginners to upper mid-class, and they only serve the purpose of helping you focus. But those hand signs are something you use, they are unique to you. While a person who knows what the Genjutsu is supposed to do can cast them with the hand signs, they in fact reduce the power of the Genjutsu, as they distract from the true source, your imagination. True masters can cast a Genjutsu with a single finger, a sound, a gesture, or even without any indication. Basically the Genjutsu that work best for you that are the most impressive and the hardest to break, are those that you yourself created. To put it bluntly, a beginner who designed his own jutsu may, and has, cast a better Genjutsu than a master who uses something made by another. If you really want success with Genjutsu, don't ask for hand signs or how to do the jutsu, ask for what it does and then work until you made one that does it. It requires more work, but the results are well worth the effort."

Naruto blinked. This went against almost everything his mother had told him. "But, aren't hand signs vital because they control the flow of chakra? So a Genjutsu shouldn't work without precise chakra-work, right?"

The Kurama had laughed. "Indeed, and that is why those who work in the art of Genjutsu need very good chakra-control. The hand signs are only needed if your control is not good enough to move the chakra on your own. That's also why people with miserable control are unable to break Genjutsu on their own; they have to disrupt their flow of chakra, although the higher-level Genjutsu can resist that, and those people don't have enough control to cause such a disruption within them. And you don't need hand signs, any focus will do. In fact, we have a girl in our clan, the most talented one we've seen in a very long time, and she uses pictures she draws as a focus instead of hand signs. Initially you may need a focus, but what that focus is really doesn't matter in Genjutsu. For Ninjutsu, it is important, because the hand signs are also connected with certain elements of nature and help you tune in better, but that's a different story."

So Naruto had started working on creating his own Genjutsu, testing them on animals and the harmless ones on random pedestrians.

_END_

* * *

There was another thing that fascinated Naruto, although that was even more difficult to learn. While alone in the house, his 'father' training Tsunami outside, Naruto had walked into his father's library. While Minato had installed seals that ensured nobody he didn't authorize could pull a scroll out of the drawer and that nobody could remove a scroll from the library, he also had the bad habit of leaving things lying around. Naruto discovered that seals, while immensely complex, were actually fairly simple in concept. There were certain rules and guidelines for seal-work, which could be bended to a certain degree but not broken without dire consequences, and as long as you followed these, you actually had a lot of freedom in what you do. Of course Naruto would need a deep understanding of seals before he could do anything that was even a fiftieth as complicated as his father's _Hiraishin_, but the most basic things Naruto quickly learned to do, the entire concept of sealing somehow making complete sense to him.

All in all, Naruto was by far superior in Genjutsu, Fūinjutsu and chakra-control to Tsunami, while having a slight edge over her in Kenjutsu, due to the fact that he actually dodged and blocked. She was better in Taijutsu, although simply stronger and faster would be more accurate, and also superior in Ninjutsu, thanks to Kyūbi's increased reserves. Her problems with control were avoided, and when it became clear that the way things were going, Tsunami would never be able to use a** Clone Jutsu.**, they decided to teach her the **Shadow Clone Jutsu.**, a jutsu perfect for people with high chakra and demons stopping information overload. Tsunami had taken to it like a fish to water, while Naruto had nearly killed himself when in a fit of jealousy; he had tried the jutsu in his room, managing three clones, which dispelled themselves to give Naruto back his chakra, as voluntary dispelled clones return everything excluding exhaustion to their creators. Naruto had learned his limit and the **Shadow Clone Jutsu's** secret there and then, and never created more than two clones tops, usually one, who then trained chakra-control or read available scrolls and books while he focused on Genjutsu, Fūinjutsu and physical fitness, in that order.

Naruto had actually taken the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**apart, figured out what gave them their independent minds and abilities to send information, and combined the sentient mind with a type of **_Bunshin_** that had no physical body but didn't dispel when hit, creating a new jutsu with drastically reduced chakra-costs. His **Genzou Bunshin** had the cost of a low D-ranked jutsu and took no more control than one needed to stick to a wall, yet nobody took him seriously when he presented it. They explained that it wouldn't do any good against an experienced Shinobi, despite the fact that Naruto explained he had intended it to be for Shinobi beginning their career, to which it would have been a very useful jutsu, since the clones were transparent to the caster, an unintended side-effect. Naruto had even created another jutsu based on his first one, a C-ranked jutsu requiring a water-walking level of control, the **Genzou Bunshin no Yoroi**, but the only thing that Naruto got when he tried to present his work was the order to not use Ninjutsu in a Taijutsu-match, although his father seemed happy that Naruto had started crafting jutsu, even if they currently were useless ones in his opinion.

Tsunami spent most of the time she didn't train with her many friends, while Naruto, who after that story Tsunami had told on their birthday had become something of an outcast in his age-group, something that Tsunami had started to actively encourage, spent most of his free time either perfecting his chakra-control, coming up with seals, or working on Genjutsu. While the simple ones Naruto could quickly recreate, he was working on one that would be much more complex. What he didn't know was how soon he would need it.

* * *

Complications rose from his mother's mission and when she arrived a month ago, alone and bloodied, she was sent to the hospital where they induced her into a coma until last week. She was too weak to help with their training, barely able to walk on account of not moving for two months. His 'father' had taken to inducing Tsunami into a more rigorous training; some said that the experience had made him fearful of the same happening to his 'sister'. They were right and wrong. His 'father took it upon him as an excuse to start training Tsunami in her Jinchūriki powers. She had produced the cloak at an extraordinary rate; perhaps with her father's help she knew the exact mechanics on how to best do so. It didn't matter because he was proud of her and goaded her into doing better every time. She would keep that appearance in front of friends and family, but Naruto knew, he knew how she became afterwards. When alone her personality took a full swing the other way and she became ruthless with him. Her demeanor and way of talking him down served to demoralize Naruto on aspects of his ninja career such as Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. With her stamina and chakra pools, she had a wider repertoire of jutsu than him, granted she didn't do them that good, all use them to her whole potential, but she beat him and berated him on occasion.

It was a cold day in February, Naruto and Tsunami were now six and four months old and a certain rhythm had settled in their lives. On weekdays they would get up, get dressed, brush their teeth, and begin their exercises before they were tutored by their mother. After lunch at 1:00 PM they had free time until 4:00 PM, when dinner was served. Then their father would be home and they would go through 2½ more hours of training before the day was done and the siblings would wash and go to bed. On weekends they had free and could decide whether they wanted to train, study, play, or just hang around. Minato worked Saturdays and parts of Sunday, while Kushina spent every second weekend with friends, leaving the children unsupervised.

On one particular Saturday, Naruto and Tsunami were alone in the house, having just returned from shopping, Kushina going back because she had forgot to buy an important dinner-ingredient, when it happened.

Naruto and Tsunami were in the kitchen, unpacking the shopping-bags, when they heard a swooshing sound. Both spending enough time throwing kunai to recognize the sound of one cutting through the air, they both jumped off the chairs they had used to reach the higher drawers. Two kunai embedded themselves in the wall were their necks had been only seconds before. They turned around, only to see a man wearing a headband with rocks carved into it. Tsunami summoned a small army of clones, confident that would be enough, only to stare in shock as the man made short work of them. That shock cost her, as she froze, and only Naruto pulling on her arm to get her to run turned the third thrown kunai into a grazing shot instead of a kill.

Naruto knew they only had as long as it would take the man to destroy the rest of the clones, which would probably be in roughly twenty seconds if the regular poofs sounding out of the kitchen were any indication. A nice part of the **Kage Bunshin** **Jutsu** was that the clones, knowing what they were, were a lot braver than the originals and had no problem starting kamikaze-attacks, which bought them a little time. Naruto's goal was to reach the front-door, then the gate, and then they would almost be out of the woods, as there was always some Shinobi on the road, usually more than one, and every Chūnin knew jutsu that served to call for backup.

He actually managed to leave the house before the Iwa-nin caught up with them. Tsunami, who had been little more than dead weight the entire escape, cried out in pain when a shuriken sank into her calf. She noticed that her surroundings were getting blurry. She wondered if she was poisoned.

Naruto knew there was no way he'd make it, even if he left his sister behind. He formed a few hand signs and prayed to every deity that might be listening for this to work. Then he saw that the Iwa-nin had drawn a Tanto and was swinging it down. Naruto's eyes widened in horror. He knew he wouldn't be able to dodge in time.

* * *

Jin Nadare, Jōnin of Iwa and former member of its hunter-nin, saw the boy beginning hand signs, and decided that whatever he was planning, he was not going to finish it. He drew his Tanto and swung it downward.

It cut through flesh and bone, leaving a deep diagonal gash from left collarbone to right hip. The boy didn't look like he was in pain, it was more disbelieving shock. Even though Jin hated the Yondaime with a passion, the man killing his father, mother and three older siblings, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity for this kid, who probably couldn't understand what was happening.

"Nothing personal, kid. This aims for your father. The pain will end in a second." With that, he slashed the boy's throat, the blond kid collapsing in a gurgling heap. The girl had tried to open the gate, but Jin's Tanto pierced her heart before she managed to pull it open. Jin removed the blade and, just to be sure, slashed her head off with a single strike. He was blown back by a chakra-wave that burned on the skin, but apart from that he was fine. He opened the gate and began to run, knowing he had only seconds until the burst of chakra would alarm somebody.

Getting out of Konoha was fairly easy, as the commotion had left every Shinobi on duty confused. However, ten minutes into his escape, he realized that he had pursuers. They had come faster than he would have liked, but realistically speaking, he had more head-start than he himself had expected, and he had prepared traps the entire route back to Iwa, ranging from exploding-tag-arrays to camouflaged seals that would fire poisoned senbon at those tracking him, not to mention a few safe hiding-places.

Maybe twenty minutes had past, and the Konoha-nin had been steadily gaining on him. By now, he could actually see flashes of them. There was no Hyūga, which was a huge relief because it meant he could use twenty hiding-places that a Hyūga would have immediately spotted him in. The Inuzuka and Aburame were worrisome, and Jin had gained multiple cuts and grazes from projectiles aimed at him. He didn't give up though, because he knew they were nearing the first trap, a simple array of ten exploding-tags. It would be triggered in just a few...

BOOM!

Such a satisfying sound, especially when accompanied by the screams of the dying. Even Deidara would not have been able to beat that. While he wasn't stupid enough to go look what he hit, a rough headcount did show that only fifteen of the former forty-headed squad was still on his trail. While his route leads him towards Kusa, the traps slowly dwindled his pursuers numbers, although they had gotten more careful after that first explosion. When he put his biggest plan into motion, he had gained more ground, with maybe seven followers left. He reached the river and started to run over it, suddenly making an 80° turn to the right, jumping into a prepared hole in the muddy shore and closing it seconds before his pursuers reached the river and ran across. There was a short pause while the trackers searched for his sent, until they started running off in the opposite direction. Jin had walked that route a hundred times to make sure his scent was on the trail. It led to a clearing, where a rain of poisoned senbon would go down on them. He had left a communicator there so he could hear when they reached the clearing, determined he would not crawl out until they had reached it. Then the relieving rustling of feet rang through his headset, and Jin bolted, running on the river for a few seconds before running towards Taki to reach Iwa. The hunt had gone on for two days now, and Jin was starting to use chakra-pills and concentrated caffeine-tablets to keep moving.

He listened to the voices in the communicator, smiling at what he heard. At first only angry calls, then surprised cries when the senbon fired. One particular piece of information made him grin and gulp at the same time.

"Kushina-sama! Damn it, she's down! Where are the medics?"

"They went down in that first explosion!"

"Damn it! You two, bring Kushina-sama to Biwako-sama at once! You two, come with me. We're gonna get that motherfucking bastard for this! Inuzuka, do you still have his trail?"

"I think he tricked us. The tracks are not as fresh as they should be. He lost us at the river!"

Jin kicked into a higher gear. Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Death, Uzu's Crimson Whirlpool, had been hunting him? His escape was a miracle. However, she was hit by the senbon, and from the way it sounded, a lot of senbon, each of them dipped in a poison that killed in less than an hour. They would never make it back to Konoha in time.

Getting rid of the last three had been comparably simple. He had led them into a trap that, while not fatal, covered them in a substance similar to fresh skunk-juice. They would never be able to track him now, meaning that with the last few traps and maneuvers to lose them, he was free as a bird.

He headed straight for Iwa, reaching it four days after he had left Konoha. His welcome was a national hero's. The Tsuchikage, a firm hater of Konoha, welcomed him in all honors. Shortly after, Iwa received the news that Kushina Uzumaki had passed away, and that the Yondaime had committed suicide after the loss of his entire family, and the ecstatic leader named Jin his successor. While beaming with pride, the greatest reward was the adoration of the female gender. After a hot night with three gorgeous women, Jin finally fell into well-deserved slumber.

* * *

Konoha was in an uproar. How had this happened? An assailant from Iwa had sneaked into the Namikaze-compound while the adults were absent and attacked the children.

_Namikaze Compound_

"How did he even get in?" A dog-masked ANBU asked while looking at the two unmoving bodies of the children. The bastard had got them good.

A tiger-masked rookie spoke up. "Hokage-sama suspected that he sneaked in when Kushina-sama left the compound to get the groceries she forgot. He immediately changed the seals, but the damage is done."

Inu nodded. "So, what happened to him?"

Tora shrugged, while the children started to stir. "A high-class Genjutsu. Ibiki had a bit of trouble getting him out of it. He said the man actually fought to stay in it. Must have been some dream. Not that I blame him, I'd want to stay any place where I'm not Ibiki's new toy."

Kushina spoke up. "So who put him under it?"

Minato shrugged. "That's the big question, isn't it? The Kurama-clan stated that as much as they'd like to take credit, none of their members were outside of their compound at the time in question, and while we have some who are good in Genjutsu, Itachi here being one of the first to come to mind, they all say they had nothing to do with it, nor do they have any idea of what was used. It was forgotten, customized, or self-made."

Kushina's eyes wandered to Naruto and Tsunami. "You don't think one of them..."

Itachi seemed thoughtful. "It's possible, but if so, then we have a Genjutsu-prodigy on our hands."

Inu seemed more hesitant. "I don't know. Of course geniuses like Itachi here exist, but they usually get noticed. A Genjutsu-prodigy especially, as they have to try their jutsu out on people, in contrast to Ninjutsu- or Taijutsu-prodigies, who can train alone with nobody watching."

Itachi nodded. "True, Genjutsu-users need to practice on others, but that doesn't necessarily mean they get noticed. If the jutsu is subtle enough, the person may not even know he's under a Genjutsu. The attacker, who as the insignia of a Jōnin, would have been able to free himself from the Genjutsu, the jutsu must have been so subtle he didn't notice he was put under it, working with his logic to make sure that he didn't realize he was caught, and pleasant enough for him not to try and dispel it out of sheer desperation. Also, some minor injuries must have been ingrained, as he has a few wounds that would have dispelled a Genjutsu that shows the mind no reason to why there is an injury. The jutsu would have to be at least a B-rank, maybe A-rank to have all these effects."

Kushina shook her head. "But neither one received such training! I taught one really low-ranked Genjutsu, then I had to stop because Tsunami was getting more and more upset because she couldn't do it. Naruto did learn it fairly quickly, but there are only few scrolls about Genjutsu in the compound, and those are never pulled out. Neither Naruto nor Tsunami had any source on Genjutsu, so it couldn't have been them."

Inu looked at Tsunami. "Do you think it could have been... the fox?"

Minato thought about it. "Well, kitsune are known as tricksters and masters of illusion. Of course, we never heard of Kyūbi having any Genjutsu-skills, but it could be that the fox simply never found itself in a situation where it would need to use them. So the chakra acted as a self-defense and just like her shroud it activated the Jutsu. It's basically what the Kyūbi needs to use his powers, maybe the shroud had long-term sensory memory and it remember the Kyūbi doing such Genjutsu. That seems to be the only explanation."

Itachi was not convinced. "Wouldn't that mean that there should be at least some traces? Youki-residue for one? There are sections in Konoha that we still can't even approach because the stuff still lingering in said sections is so dense and aggressive to living beings, like us. 3% of Konoha have been deemed uninhabitable after the attack, and they still are, after all these years! And you're telling me the fresher trails vanished in minutes?"

"Do you have a different explanation?" Kushina asked.

"None so far." Itachi admitted. "Still, I can't help but think that something we don't know happened here."

Minato shrugged. "And I agree. But if what you said is true, even the Iwa-nin won't be able to help us with that, as he would not know at which point his memories are a Genjutsu."

* * *

Naruto was seething in anger. He had worked months on that one Genjutsu, making sure it worked just the way he wanted to, so that he could finally show something unique to him that his parents could be proud of, and now that he had actually activated **Zekkou Sekai**, driving himself to chakra-exhaustion while doing so, his sister of all people got the credit! It was not fair! And of course Tsunami didn't deny anything, granted, she didn't know better. But now she walked around with her head even more bloated, actually threatening him to put him under her 'super-awesome Genjutsu' if he didn't do what she wanted. Naruto had laughed her in the face, only to be punished when his sister started crying and telling Kushina he was making fun of her. Why did Tsunami get the credit for everything _he_ worked for all the time, while he was being called jealous whenever he tried to set things straight?!

Even worse, Tsunami had found out that their parents and the teachers in the ninja-academy they had recently started to visit didn't trust Naruto when his and her words stood against each other, especially if she had witnesses. So she had started to play pranks, and blamed him! And of course the other children took her side, claiming they saw Naruto do it. Some other pranksters like Kiba Inuzuka had started to do the same thing, meaning that Naruto was slowly gaining a reputation as a troublemaker, despite not doing anything wrong. It went so far that Naruto considered actually playing a prank on somebody, only so that their parents would, just for a change, yell at him for something he actually did. He was sick of hearing "Why can't you be more like your sister?" resulting in him once yelling back "Because I don't want to blame others for what I did or take credit for their actions!", which had resulted in a week of house-arrest. Really, life sucked.

What Naruto didn't know was that life was about to take another U-turn on his seventh birthday, and not for the better.

* * *

Minato and Kushina were peacefully sleeping in their bed, an actual western bed instead of a mere futon, when their instinct woke them, telling them they were no longer alone. The worry was instantly gone when they recognized Tsunami's steps, before she jumped on them both.

"OOF!" Minato called, exaggerating the pain Tsunami caused. When he opened his eyes, he saw she was already completely dressed in clothes and thick jacket, as winter had come early this year. The only thing she wasn't wearing were her shoes, as it was not allowed to wear those in the house.

She smiled at him and Kushina, and jumped up and down on the bed. "C'mon, wake up! It's almost nine! I wanna see my friends. Let's go, let's go, letsgoletsgoletsgo!"

Minato laughed. "Okay, okay we're getting up."

Kushina looked at her daughter. "Don't you want to open your presents first?"

Tsunami shook her head. "Nuh-uh. I can open them later, they don't go anywhere. I wanna see my friends!"

Minato and Kushina shrugged and got dressed, Tsunami jumping around like a rubber ball on a sugar-rush, speaking without a single pause, urging her parents to hurry up, before literally dragging the laughing adults outside, still speaking without break.

* * *

Today was his seventh birthday, he usually woke up early to open his presents that his parents left in the living room, since they didn't want to be woken up that early. Naruto blinked as he stood up. He had really gone overboard last night. He had read through a number of scrolls that the blond woman with the diamond on her forehead had forgotten there, with a dictionary and an encyclopedia for some of the more complicated words, and found a few things that had brought him to put down the basis for two new Genjutsu that would be as good or even better as** Zekkou Sekai.** It would probably take months until they were done, but his first self-made Genjutsu had given him a feeling for how it worked and what he had to do, so he was confident that he could finish these new ones faster. After he had those ideas somewhat worked out, he had worked on some seals, before falling asleep at three in the morning. Then all he would have to do was get his reserves up to a level were performing them would not be a gamble that always left him unconscious and only worked once every five tries.

Naruto had wisely decided to try his genjutsu one more time, just to be sure, and was disgruntled to learn that he didn't have enough chakra for it, and that the first time had probably been a fluke caused by adrenaline increasing the amount of chakra in his body to beyond what was normal and safe. Of course, by now he could do it without fainting, but it was extremely draining, plus the entire affair had practically been forgotten already. Still, he was proud with himself, and that he kept pushing his limits to surpass them seemed to be working.

He knew he should have taken it a bit easier on the day before his birthday, but it had been so fascinating. And it seemed he was still the first one up, as he couldn't hear any sound, not counting the chirping of birds, the swooshing of leaves in the trees… it was to peaceful.

Last night His 'father' and mother were discussing some things that for now he couldn't remember. He felt weak and excused himself from the table, although nobody expect his 'sister' notice. She seemed to be smirking in his direction; with a face that said that she knew something he didn't, he didn't care at the moment and just went to bed.

Now woken up he went to the bathroom to freshen up, deadly tired, his muscle seemed to have fallen asleep like him, like in his dreams with a demon, where he ran and ran, without ever stopping, all its yells about its power and how it would possess him. He ran in his dream, for hour maybe weeks, time seemed to slow down in there, but it never caught him. Brushing his teeth and splashing water in his face he finally noticed that the house was silent. He was sure it was late. He could see the sun's position from the window, so why wasn't there sound in his house.

He slowly trekked his way to his 'sisters' room, nobody in. he noticed some clothes discarded on the floor and a small bag filled with accessories but he didn't spared it a glance. He made his way into his parent's room. The same was for them. Their closet was open and clothes lay about. He started panicking, these were tell-tale signs that somebody robbed them, but it couldn't be. His 'fathers' security seals were the best of Konoha, maybe even the nation. Nobody could break in. Not after the incident. Nobody. He relaxed at the notion; maybe they were downstairs waiting for him, wanting to surprise him. Yeah that could be it; his mother did seem to feel better yesterday. He rushed to the stair jumping two by two, not a care as long as he saw them. He made his way into the kitchen, it was the first thing to his left that went into the leaving room.

"Good morning! Where's break-" nobody was there. The kitchen seemed clean, everything used yesterday cleaned out, he was hungry from barely eating but he forgot about for the moment. _'Maybe they are in the living room; Tsunami might just be playing with her toys and maybe father and mother just went out to get a birthday cake or get our- I mean Tsunamis' friends. Yeah that's it.' _Onceagain rounding the corner he found nobody in the living room. Rather than letting his paranoia grow he relaxed himself. 'They must have all gone out…" deciding not to have a panic attack, he went back to the kitchen and fixed himself a sandwich and juice. He returned to his room to study a bit more on his Genjutsu and Fūinjutsu_. 'I'll just focus on this some more, maybe by the time I finish they'll come back…' _Naruto didn't notice that as he started to eat and study his seals he fell asleep once again on his desk, forgetting his worries until he woke up.

* * *

Minato and Kushina had to agree that when Tsunami asked that for her birthday they went to the Hot Springs, they were stupefied at such a simple request. Usually she would ask for many presents, but it turned out to be nice. When asked she said she also wanted her mother to relax and enjoy the day, something like a mother-daughter moment. It went from two day to a five day trip; they just couldn't get enough of it. When they returned to her house it felt as if they had remembered they had forgotten something. None could imagine what it was, and simply pass it up as a feeling. So when they entered their house, Minato unlocking the seals that didn't open the house without his or Kushina's chakra they didn't imagine the image that would come to them.

"Yeah, Tsunami really had a good idea for us to stay for a few more days, I mean since I woke up I've never felt better and-"

"Welcome home" at that moment both of them reacted as if on danger and position themselves on defense for their daughter. They looked around, every crook and cranny that had a dark spot, before materializing in front of them as if using a Genjutsu, Naruto appeared. "I was wondering when you would come home, you know I child can get pretty lonely, scared and worried if none of his parents are there for FIVE days." They voice sounded so monotone and devoid of life that they had a hard time placing it on their memories and that's when it clicked.

As each of his words reach them, their faces lost color as if hit with each one. "Naruto?" Kushina asked.

"Ah, mother it seems you've remembered your son first." Both visibly flinched from that. "Pray tell, where were you all this time?"

Tsunami being the adorable bundle of idiot she was, didn't read the mood before answering. "They took me to the Hot Springs! First we were gonna stay for two days, but it was so good that we ended up in five! You really should have Naruto." She was standing behind their parents, both couldn't see her face, too stuck on rewinding their minds trying to find the moment when they forgot about Naruto. When was the last time they spoke to him, so it was obvious they couldn't see her face, a sneer pasted on her face, like a self-righteous princess.

"Shut up Tsunami. You aren't part of the conversation." He wouldn't rise to her taunt, by the look on her face she wasn't sorry he wasn't there, probably orchestrated the whole thing. Even so, for parents to forget their own child, it went to them the fault of him being alone. "Well?"

* * *

Luck was not on Naruto's side that week. In fact, Naruto's luck had taken the day off the ffirst time and then a whole week, while misfortune was working double-shifts to catch up with the workload. When he had woken up and found nobody in his house he grew desperate, even believing for a moment that Tsunami really did have Genjutsu that were better than his and was using them at the very moment. He took to exploring the house once again before trying for the door. And he noticed it then. It didn't open.

The first seals were up without a problem, including the sound-blocking seal, which ensured that nobody outside could hear what happened inside. That seal had been placed there back when Naruto and Tsunami had been babies and the latter had regularly cried the whole neighborhood awake. Minato had added them to ensure that at least the neighbors got some sleep.

However, as bad luck would have it, what Naruto couldn't have known was that when the gate was sealed shut and his parents chakra signals weren't in the vicinity, the house automatically went into lock-down. All doors and windows closed and were impossible to open until the gate was opened and they came back. He had yelled for help, tried to break the windows, but they were reinforced glass plus they had reinforcement seals, his tiny body and strength wouldn't be able to help.

He was alone, scared, terrified. Nobody was with him. Nobody came for him. Nobody noticed him. Luck had done a little something before it left. His 'parents' had left a few cans and food in the kitchen. They must've cleaned it all in the last week and were planning on refilling their stocks when they bought their stuff for the party. If there had been one. He tried to ration it out, but some weren't good to his taste buds or digestive system. In the end by the fourth day he didn't have any more food.

The entire world had become nothing but a dark blur. The silence was deafening, only his weak breathing cutting through the absolute quiet. Everything was so cold.

Naruto couldn't see it but outside a snowstorm had hit Konoha unexpectedly and his house sat at the wrong side of it. There seem to be so much that the house actually looked as if it was painted white and the house had grown even colder.

His body was already too weak and exhausted to shiver. And still one thought kept Naruto clinging to life, even as his body was slowly shutting down.

_'They'll be here shortly. Hang on. Just a little bit longer.'_

The booming and the sudden eruptions of color in the blur of Naruto's vision had pulled Naruto out of his trance. Although he could not see the fireworks blooming in the sky like giant flowers, through his window, his mind instinctively knew what it was.

It was midnight. The four-day festival was over.

His birthday was over three days ago.

He was much too weak to laugh, but hollow chuckles escaped his lips as he understood.

_'They forgot me. They forgot I existed.'_

He knew that his parents had occasionally forgotten about him for moments when stressed, probably because Naruto had somehow had gained the ability to merge with the background and become invisible, not to mention that Tsunami hogged and horded all available attention like a miser horded money, but he had never thought it was this bad.

For the first time since he woken up that regretful day, Naruto cried.

* * *

Their faces told him of their recognition. They understood what had transpired. And it drained their faces even more. Suddenly a POOF rang through the air and a giant toad appeared, a white-heired man riding it. "JIRAYA THE TOAD-SAGE HAS ARRIVED!" He called, and the parents quickly sheathed the weapons they had instinctively drawn once again. Neither actually moved to face him, their bodies just did it automatically but their minds were still from the shock.

"Uncle Jiraiya!" Tsunami shouted, jumping at the man who sometimes visited and always told her funny stories. "You were in town?"

Jiraiya laughed. "Just arrived. I couldn't very well just pass Konoha without giving you here a birthday present. Could I?"

Tsunami looked up with sparkling eyes. "You have something for me?"

He ruffled her hair. "Of course I do. Who do you think I am?" Jiraiya puffed his chest. "Well, your parents told me that you have incredible chakra-reserves, so I will grant you the honor, the once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to... sign the Toad-contract!"

Tsunami's eyes widened, then she jumped up and down in joy. "YAY, I GET TO BE JUST LIKE DADDY!"

Jiraiya shook his head, summoned the toad that held the contract and unrolled it. "Now Tsunami, a summoning-contract is special. You have to sign your name, yes, your full name, with your blood, and then leave a hand-print in blood. Then you get to summon toads, just like me and your father."

Tsunami had frowned when she heard she had to sign with her own blood, but she quickly got over it and cut open her hand to write in blood. Once she finished, she looked at Jiraya. "How do I summon?"

Jiraiya smirked. "Now that is for your father to tell you. He'll decide when you're ready for it."

Tsunami pouted. "No fair!" She shouted, but she ran off to brag to her friends. Her parents hadn't move from their spot.

Jiraiya laughed again, before looking around. "Well, Tsunami got her present. So, where is the other one? The quiet little red-head?"

They turn their faces toward him. All color drained from Kushina and Minato's faces. They retuned back to reality

"Naruto." Kushina whispered. "We left him at home!" Not realizing they had already arrived at it.

Jiraiya blinked. "What do you mean, you left him alone. I heard that he seems to be a troublemaker, but don't you think it's a little cruel to punish him on his birthday?"

Kushina shook her head. "We didn't punish him... we forgot."

Jiraiya blinked. He didn't believe his ears. "You forgot your own son? On his _birthday_?"

Minato seemed completely disturbed by himself. "I... we... when we woke up... Tsunami... so much chaos... had to look everywhere at once... went to the Hot Springs… five days… there was never a moment's quiet... ah shit." They turned back towards the door but the boy had already disappeared from their view and the door closed again

Minato had somewhat regained his cool by then. He looked at Kushina. "Well, what will we give as an excuse?"

Kushina smiled weakly. "He probably won't forgive us this until he graduates. We have to make it up to him somehow."

Minato chuckled, although it sounded a bit strained. "How about we don't punish for demolishing the house, which he has likely done by now?"

Kushina sent him a stern look. "I'm serious Minato! He's must be terribly upset, and he has every right to be! How could we forget him?"

Now Minato sobered. "I don't know. We woke up, still half asleep, and Tsunami practically dragged us out the front door and to her friends, the most exhausting because hyper ones first. We never had a real moment's peace until the Hot Springs, and at that point, we wanted and did knowingly forget the fact that children even existed. It's not really an excuse, but nobody mentioned him before we returned."

Kushina frowned. "Naruto acts so shy. He always stays in the background. Even though he's there, he doesn't act like he's there. I don't think he has many friends. None of the children even asked where Naruto was, doesn't that make you worry?"

Minato nodded. He was about to say more, but they had reached the door to the house. Jiraiya noticed his hesitation. "What's wrong? Steeling yourself for the sight of the ruins of your house? Or are you worried that he might have booby-trapped the door?"

Minato shook his head. "No. well, that too, but I'm getting a bad vibe." He touched the door and touched the seals. The seals glowed, and Minato got a short report. No windows or doors were opened during the duration of lock-down. Apparently Naruto had decided to let out his anger indoors. He opened the door, and fell into panic before he even looked inside.

It was a repulsive feeling. Anger. Hatred. Rage. Hostility. Oppression. Loneliness. Unhappiness. Animosity. Darkness. A menacing, ominous, sinister, threatening feeling the likes of which they hadn't felt like since the attack of the Kyūbi.

Kushina gagged at the smell, before rushing through the door. It took all her effort not to scream.

There were bloody hand-prints, just the size of a seven-year-olds' hands, going from the front door, which seemed to have a number of scratches, where someone had apparently tried to open it. The prints made a trail on the wall leading around the compound. Kushina rushed off, while Minato stared in shock.

"No door opened. No window opened. They all close in lock-down and can't be opened from the outside. The door and windows can't be opened, period. But where did all the blood come from?"

Jiraiya looked around. He noticed the scratches on the inside of the main gate, and he saw the splatters of blood on the frame. "Minato, look at this. There's blood on the frame. Scratches mixed in them. He was trying to scratch his way out. Probably forgot the knives and utensils in his desperation."

Minato looked at his former teacher, his mind apparently still unable to puzzle together what was going on. "I... but... It's possible, but then..."

A heartbreaking scream interrupted them, coming from the left side of the house. Minato and Jiraiya dashed the latter taking note of the state of the house. Bludgeon objects and broken furniture near the windows, opened cans and an even more intensive feeling deeper inside.

Kushina was holding her child, which she had found leaning on the west wall of his room. He had, according to the blood on the wall, including larger stains where he had rested, apparently tried tobreak his window so as to shout or wave at someone to notice him. Something sharp must have been in his possession for such dentures. While that was an admirable show of will, when she had found him, Naruto had been draped in a thin sheet. His eyes were dull and unfocused, tears leaving their marks on the inhumanly pale skin. Kushina wailed, holding her son, rocking back and forth.

"He's cold. He's so cold. Minato help!"

When her husband arrived, she looked up. Nameless terror was etched on his face. "Kami in heaven, have mercy." He whispered. "The snowstorm. It must've have hit the house terribly. And without us here the house went and stopped working the heaters and all the warmth of the house left it."

Jiraiya looked between the two of them, before loudly clapping his hands. "What are you two doing?! We have to get him to Biwako, NOW!"

Jiraiya himself was the most upset one of them all. Admittedly, his contact with the boy, now that he thought about it, had been non-existent, but he could honestly say that he had no fault in what happened to the boy. He had been the one, and shamefully for all clans that were visited by the trio, the first and only one, to ask about Naruto's whereabouts, although if he was honest, he only remembered when he had let Tsunami sign the contract, not wanting to look like he preferred a sibling to the other.

* * *

When they arrived at the hospital, where Biwako always resided in such festivals, because there was always someone, usually a two- to three-digit number of some ones, who drank more than they could stomach, said women dropped a glass she had been holding, letting it shatter on the floor.

"What the hell did you do with the kid?!" She asked, enraged.

Kushina, still clutching her lifeless son, looked at Biwako. "I beg of you, save my son!"

Biwako looked at her. "I want an explanation later." She moved a chakra-covered hand to Naruto's head, then to his chest, after prying him out of Kushina's arms and putting him on a stretcher with attached mobile table.

"Don't ask me how, but he's still alive." She tore open the jacket wrapped around him and touched down on his chest and her eyes widened. "Dear kami." she muttered. "He's too cold." Then her eyes widened. "His heartbeat's fading. We're losing him!" She placed her hands on the boy's chest, sending weak bursts of lightning-chakra to keep the heart going, before looking at the nearest doctor. "Prep me a room ASAP! He won't last much longer!"

The man nodded and ran, Biwako and a squad of medics attracted by the commotion rolling Naruto after him.

His parents and Jiraiya were not allowed beyond the reception.

After nearly seven hours of surgery, both Shinobi-style and old-fashioned, Biwako returned to the waiting parents. Jiraiya had gone and parked Tsunami at the Yamanaka-household, stating that a private emergency made it impossible for Tsunami to stay at the Namikaze-compound for a day or two. That was actually true, and he had left before any questions could be asked.

Kushina jumped up and rushed to the old woman. "How is he? Please Biwako, tell me he's okay!"

Biwako snorted. "He's far from okay. But fine, I'll fill you in on the details before I demand my explanation about what happened." She took a deep breath. "He was heavily injured, to be more precise his arm's were, nearly bled dry and suffering from hypothermia to a ridiculous extent. In his limbs, the body temperature was just barely above freezing, the surface-temperature of his skin in some cases even below freezing. By all rights and every medical text in the history of mankind, the boy should be dead, but we've stabilized him. What was one of the reasons for his heavy blood-loss was that some foreign chakra was stuck in the wounds and prevented the blood from clotting. The boy will live, and surprisingly, there is no damage to his brain. That's where the good news ends."

Minato, who had slumped together in relief, looked at her. "Why? There is no mental damage as you say, and knowing you, he'll make a full recovery. You've fixed worse."

Biwako shook her head. "No, I haven't. And I said there was no brain-damage. There will probably be tons of mental damage. The wounds had been open for hours, probably a day or so as far as I could tell, and the boy must have been conscious to cling to life for that long. So I can honestly say he'll never be the same again."

Kushina bit her lip. "Can't we... remove the traumatizing memory?"

Biwako shook her head. "Not without altering his entire mind. This will leave physical changes, and looking at those will make him wonder where he got them, which will destroy any block we put up in short time. Unless you want to alter every memory in his head to make him think he's always been like that, it's useless. And even then, there's no guarantee it'll actually hold, as we can't delete memories, only suppress them."

Minato looked at her. "What physical changes?"

Biwako let out a deep sigh. "His career as a Shinobi is almost certainly over."

Jiraiya looked up. "Why?"

Biwako looked at him. "Had you brought the boy in immediately or at least no more than twelve hours ago, I probably would have been able to get him back to an almost completely functioning condition. But when you brought him, I had to choose between saving his arms and saving his life."

Minato paled. "What do you mean?"

Biwako gave him a stern look. "Whatever happened to his arm, it was bad. All muscles are shredded, most blood-vessels heavily damaged. Also, since the boy restricted the blood-circulation to that arm, something that saved his life, a lot of tissue has simply died. What the boy did was obviously only supposed to last for a few minutes, an hour at most. All in all, those arms are a little more than bones with skin plastered to it. The skin had multiple large tears, so the arm lost mass. All that I can probably fix in a week or so. However, the real damage was done to his chakra-coils."

Jiraiya looked at her, no shred of his usual cheerfulness in his eyes. Damage to the coils was always bad. Those were the lifeline of a Shinobi, and if there was something wrong, especially in such a vital area as the hand, the Shinobi in question was a sitting duck, unable to use any jutsu requiring hand signs. "How bad is it?"

Biwako looked away. "They are almost completely shattered all the way up to the shoulder. He had to been using chakra in his hands to use as extra strength for whatever he wanted to do. He simply redirected most if not all of his chakra at them. The body can't handle that kind of pressure. It lost chakra, so it lost heat. He lost heat; his body didn't act fast enough to send blood-clots. Those can't be fixed, and even if by some miracle they do regrow, it will be crippled. He may never mold chakra again. The nerves didn't take so much, so he will be able to move them, given time and therapy. But it will take a while for them to move as they were, if they even do so. He might be able to take Taijutsu and Kenjutsu, but anything else that needs chakra will hurt him. A lot."

She gave a stern look to all three, who shrank under her glare. "Whatever you did, it basically left Naruto a temporary, if not forever a cripple."

* * *

This Jutsu are property of Thanatos. I do not take praise for them. Please head to his page to read the original story.

_Genzo Bunshin no Jutsu_ (Phantom Clone Technique)  
Rank: D  
Range: Short (0m-5m), Middle (5m-10m)  
Type: Support  
This jutsu was the first of many to be invented by Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. It is a combination of the traditional _Bunshin_ and different additions. They are sentient and not reliant on their creator to move. They do not send information once dispelled, as with the amount of clones that could be created, that ability would almost certainly cause information-overload. The clones have no solid form, however they will not dispel when hit. Instead, they will allow the hit to pass through them. The clones are transparent to the caster, allowing him or her to hide amongst or even within the clones. The jutsu was intended to call large amounts of clones that would be so close together that their forms would be merging with each other, breaking up the human form and confusing enemies. Hyuuga's can not look through the clones, as the fairly dense chakra in the clones shroud their view. The weakness of this jutsu is that the clones make no sound aside from talking ad have no scent, meaning that someone orienting themselves by sound or someone with a sense of smell comparable to the Inuzuka can easily find the original. Naruto initially intended this jutsu to replace the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ as one of the standard three academy-taught jutsu and improve the survival-rates for freshly graduated genin, but it was rejected because nobody took him seriously.

_Genzou Bunshin no Yoroi_ (Phantom Clone Armor)  
Rank: C  
Range: Short (0m-4m)  
Type: Support  
A alteration to Naruto's first jutsu. The clones called are identical to those the _Genzou Bunshin no Jutsu_ summons, only these clones all take the same spot as their creator, their chakra covering him like an armor, shielding him or her from the Byakugan. The clones are still independent from their creator, and use this to full advantage. They will attack from other directions and in different ways than the creator, confusing the enemy to which attack should be blocked and which won't do anything. The clones can distance themselves up to four meters from their creator, adding to the confusion by jumping into different directions. As the clones are non-corporal, they can launch feints through each other and the original caster, just as the caster can attack through the body of the clones, making the entire attack highly unpredictable and almost impossible to defend against. Naruto devised this jutsu to further support freshly graduated genin, but nobody paid enough attention for him to even present this jutsu and prove its usefulness.

_Zekkou Sekai_ (Ideal World)  
Rank: ? (Unranked, speculated to be somewhere between B and A)  
Range: Short (0m-5m), Middle (5m-10m), Long (10m+)  
Type: Offensive/Defensive/Support  
First advanced genjutsu designed and created by Naruto. It is based on the idea that to dispel a genjutsu, one must first realize that he is under one. This genjutsu uses the enemy's own planning against them by simulating their expectations, making them see, hear and feel what they expect to feel. It is designed to make the victim experience the 'best possible and plausible turn of events', meaning that the victim's own schemes work against them, and the more detailed their plan of action is and the more they have calculated all risks and thought everything out, the harder it is to realize they are not in the real world. While the jutsu does not have the power to change the perception of time, it alters the short-term memory, making the victim believe that five hours have passed for every minute under the genjutsu. After the 'planned scenario' is over, it causes the body to produce large amounts of endorphin, to keep the victim in a daze of happiness. The last effect was not planned in its creation, but is a positive side-effect that reduces the risk of the victim realizing that something is wrong. A potential weakness is that the victim has not made any plans or expectations, which may cause them to notice that things are going a little bit too well.

**So I finally finished it. I had to change a lot of stuff, and if you had not noticed from Thanatos' story I changed much. Tsunade wasn't in the village, I've got a need for her later. Biwako, if I remember correctly was Sarutobi's wife is the Head Doctor of the hospital. I don't know if this was true, but it suited me just fine. I changed his sisters' name from Natsuki to Tsunami. I don't know what Natsuki means, but Tsunamis generated by large earthquakes have historically formed ephemeral whirlpools (or maelstroms) at points along the area of wave impact, dependent upon submarine topography. Most notably, the tsunami from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake created a maelstrom off Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which was videotaped during news coverage and has become a viral video. The Kyūbi is said to perform earthquakes so I made her Tsunami, both because it had to do with her Uzumaki blood and she came after the Kyūbi was freed, hence the name. And Naruto as stated above came after her, making him the second 'shift in nature' caused by the Kyūbi.**

**So read and review and see you next time.**

** REVIEW!**


	3. The Lose of a Family

To Free the Bijū Ch. 3

This story is based on the Fanfiction story 'God of Illusion, Wielder of the Devil's Arm' by Thanathos. If you wish to read his story, I recommend it, stop by his page and read it. He has already given me permission as long as I give him his much needed credit. I'm grateful to him for giving me a chance. Well, I by no means am forgetting my other story 'The Jinchūriki of Ten-Tails, but I recently saw the last movie and with another idea I had in my mind I proposed myself to invent this story. (Except for the parts that are Thanatos')

Reviews:

-To all, I reread the last chapter, and corrected a few mistakes. Some have come to me with a lot of questions about their seventh birthday accident. It goes this way. Naruto is alone, they return after five days, Minato deactivates the seal, 'Naruto' appears. They realize what happened, and cuts to a flashback of his week (I fix that part.). comes back to them, Jiraiya appears, he gives Tsunami her present asks for Naruto. They come out of their shock, 'Naruto' is gone, the door closed, they barely opened it( if you don't want to reread it, I just put him on their porch and the door wasn't opened completely, so it closed) THEN, they talk, open it again and come inside, bada-bing, bada-bung, he's in his room. And the rest happened.

-Ghost Kitsune, I didn't find that part you are saying, maybe its because I'm writing this and I cant find the part, but thanks for the help.

-Coldblue, you get a cookie, because you just gave me an idea.

So, onwards with the show.

"Hi" means talking

'_Hi' _means thinking

**_Hi means demonic/out worldly voices or thoughts_**

**HI** **means jutsu**

**(HI) means jutsu translation**

**Disclaimer: Do you know how it feels for your original fic to not get so many reviews, but you do one from somebody else and you get the almost the same number in less than three days… its confusing. Spoiler alert, read the last chapter of the manga. We all knew it would happen, I don't like it, but it happened. I like Suigetsu's reaction to what happens; I think I would do the same. Except first cut Karin's head off, she really should see a doctor.**

* * *

Biwako was sitting in her office, Minato, Kushina and Jiraiya sitting before her, all terrible nervous because of the twitch on Biwako's brow. "So let me see if I got this straight. When you two woke up that morning on their birthday, Tsunami was hopping around on your bed, rushing you to hurry up so that she could see her friends. In your drowsy state of mind, you got dressed and left with her, completely forgetting that Naruto was sleeping only a few feet away. Has something like this ever happened before? Is occasionally forgetting your quiet son in favor of your loud daughter on the list of things you do or did you just pick a lousy time to try something new?" Sarcasm was dripping from her voice.

Kushina sobbed, but nodded. "It may have happened once or twice. Naruto is just so quiet; you completely forget he's there, especially with Tsunami around."

That part Biwako couldn't deny, as she herself had once taken five minutes to notice Naruto was there when the Namikaze-family had come to her for a checkup. "Anyways, you sealed the compound when you left, to ensure that no assassin sneaks in while you're away and hides to kill you in your sleep, like that man from Iwa a few months ago. With that thought, once again you forgot him and continued on. What about the seals on the house?"

Minato looked uncomfortable. "A spike or surge in a seal-array is usually the first warning that something's wrong, but with him inside the house, the seals just assumed him part of the house, or that he wouldn't leave. But the other seals that are directly connected with me and Kushina didn't notice our presence after twelve hours and went into a standby phase. During which everything from the heaters to the appliances also shut down. Also, not only the gates, doors and windows, but the walls and my entire house are connected through that array, which means there are almost 10.000 individual seals that went into protection and detail. I would have to carefully analyze to find the one seal that is the main component and change each one connected to it, so that the kids would also be recognize as part of it and not deactivate. Since they were usually with us, I didn't find the reason for it…"

Jiraiya nodded. "That is how it works. A surge would suggest that one looks over his arrays and the house, but it didn't happen, hence they didn't know something was wrong."

Biwako sighed. "Anyways, you then visited a dozen or so compounds, and because all of the children running around there, you didn't have time to think of Naruto. And nobody in any of the compounds asked where Naruto was either, or even had a present for him. Is that right?"

Slow nods answered her. She took a deep breath. "And then you went to the festival, where practically the entire village welcomed you, and again, nobody thought of Naruto. You let the kids run around and when you had your free and calm moment, you and Tsunami decided to leave to the Hot Springs and pretend your problems did not exist, is that right? And Jiraiya, who I know has been in the country for at least three days, decided he'd rather go peep on women in the minor hot springs rather than visit his godchildren. Meanwhile, Naruto got stuck in his own house, with no heat, no food and no one to help or hear him, and spent his entire birthday and following week alone. And let's not forget, the only present he got that day, the ones locked up in your compound don't count, was a crippling injury and the end of his career as a Shinobi, long before it officially began. Does that about sum it up?"

All three looked at each other. It sounded horrible when Biwako said it like that, but they couldn't really say anything, because that was essentially what happened. So they slowly nodded.

Biwako looked ready to explode, but with inhuman effort, she managed to reign her temper in. she took a deep, calming breath. "Name one reason why I should not pick up this desk and whack you all with it until you look like triplets." She pinched her nose, before turning to the door. "TAJI, I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT IT, I NEED SAKE RIGHT NOW!" *****

As it turned out, Taji had been eavesdropping, and for once actually agreed with Biwako. When shit like this happened, alcohol was a good friend to lean on. She brought a bottle and two cups, one for Biwako and one for herself. She wasn't a heavy drinker, but you don't spend years with Biwako without learning how to hold your liquor.

Biwako finished her first cup in one go, before looking at the downcast parents plus godfather. "You've caused a wonderful mess. Now you deal with it. You three decide which one of you gets to explain to Naruto that he might never be Shinobi, and especially why." With that, she stood up and left. Silence reigned in the room after the door closed.

* * *

Slowly, Naruto opened his eyes. The ceiling was unfamiliar, but somehow, he didn't really care. He felt hollow inside. He tried to sit up, only by sheer will to do so. Where was this? He had never seen this place before. All around him were red velvet walls and balconies at the top all looking towards the front of his eyesight. He realized he was sitting in an aisle that had the same color as the walls. To both sides rows of chairs were placed. Each one had the same pattern of figures, he recognized it as seals. But why would there be seals in a theater. Better yet why was he in a theater?

He stood up, discovering that none of his self-inflicted, although accidental, injuries were on him. Looking forward he saw as it materialized a long rope, also colored as the room. It fell right in the front of the stage with a thick curtain hid away whatever was behind it.. Not knowing what to do, he simply went towards it and pulled it.

What followed next surprised him. The velvet curtain actually started to divide itself, no longer connected to one another, thick and strong columns of the material pressed themselves to show bars and space between them that peered of into darkness. He simply didn't know why, but something kept him from moving forward. Another rope materialized by his left side, a small note at the end saying lights. _'Maybe to see what's inside?'_ he mused. He pulled it and found himself staring at the one and only, Kyūbi no Yōko.

He fell backwards to a seat. "K-Kyūbi?" terrified, that's what he felt. It didn't matter what just happened to him outside, it didn't matter at the moment that he was forgotten. He just had one thought. He was in front of the most powerful monster in existence.

**_"So my jailer finally decides to come meet me. I had wondered for some time if I should choose to just continue to sleep away. Had you taken any longer and I just might have. Tell me jailer, are you afraid?"_** He seemed weak. He's words barely passing from his lips. As if drained from everything he had.

He left those depressing thought behind. He had more pressing matters at the moment. "Are you really the Kyūbi? What happened to you? You look so weak?"

The Kyūbi's eyes flared and for a moment his strength returned. **_"You dare call me weak! I'm not such a thing Human, I could easily destroy you just like-"_** He coughed, horribly. It seemed sick. Naruto wanted to look at it in pity, but a glare from it stopped him. **_"Were it not for this infernal seal and my lack of chakra I would have done so much sooner. That man really thought that it could keep me locked away?"_** He coughed again this time lighter.

"What happened?" Naruto really couldn't understand it. Somehow looking at it he didn't find himself so scared anymore. Maybe because it was locked away behind the bars. Maybe because it looked so weak and sick. Maybe just because it looked frail and alone, like him.

**_"What do you think Human? Do you know what I am? I'm a sentient mass of pure chakra! To collect and store chakra from everything in my path. I live as long as their chakra. Yes, I can be killed, but I cannot die. What do you think happens when that accursed Yondaime made a seal that actually divided me from my sustenance? My way of living! I'm a hollow form. Without it I'm powerless, and it without me grows rampant."_**

Naruto looked at it with wide eyes. It didn't seem possible. Somehow he was keeping a dying monster alive. That's what it meant. It needed chakra to live. And if Tsunami was any indication, since the Kyūbi's chakra flowed and purified into her, then the same could be said for him. It was using him as a battery. No wonder he had so little chakra for that age. A normal Uzumaki would have at least high-level Chūnin chakra, maybe Elite Chūnin. He only had mid-level; the difference was astounding to anyone that knew of Shinobi life. Without that his **Zekkou Sekai (Ideal World) **would be so much easier to use! Suddenly he looked enrage. "Your using me as a battery! You- you son of a bitch! You are the reason I'm so behind in Ninjutsu, and why my **Zekkou Sekai **drains me so much! Why I'm so behind Tsunami! Why I'm so left behind by my parents!"

**_"Shut your mouth Human! I do not care for your petty problems; I do not care how you are treated by others. They took away my chakra, my life-force! It is the same. They used me to have a super soldier, and now I'm using you to keep myself alive! Whether I admit it or not I have a need of you!"_** It huffed, over-exerting itself. By mid speech it had lift its head a few feet and by its end let it fall down uncaringly. Maybe just out of energy.

Naruto didn't know what to say. He couldn't retaliate like that. It was the truth. Sure the Kyūbi attacked the village and was sealed, but had it had all of its chakra, it wouldn't be in this position. Yet somehow Naruto didn't pity it no more, because of a few simple words it said_. It needed him_. Words he had never heard. Words that meant that he was recognized and that he meant something. That he wasn't forgotten. "You said you needed me, right?" It merely looked at him, a small almost unperceived nod came from it. "Then how can it be I could do such a feat? I mean you said so yourself. You need chakra to live, mine can't be how you survived through it. As much as I would love to brag that I have extraordinary chakra for my age, it can't be enough for you, can it?"

It looked at the boy. A glint of amazement in his eyes. A bit of respect. For a Human. **_"You are right Human. I can say that I'm surprised at your understanding of such matters." _**Naruto smiled embarrassed at it. **_"For a puny Human, that is."_** Naruto fell dejected at that. A small smirk appeared on the fox's face. **_"I cannot continue to live this way with your chakra, that much is true, but I don't have to." _**Naruto looked at it confused. **_"That other Human, the girl that has my chakra, she's part of the reason I'm alive. Do you remember when you slept with her? How the next mornings you would feel awful? It seemed abysmal, didn't it? You just thought that she hurt you in your sleep, on purpose or not, right?" _**Naruto nodded.**_ "She did and she didn't. Because of her I didn't need you all the time when you were younger to drain your chakra or you would have surely died, with me in the process. She injected my chakra back into you, and subsequently to me. A dangerous process, I assure you. Her doing so, made so that my chakra forced itself more and more into her coils to accommodate itself, with the seals in place my chakra was in a sub-par space by her coils, in each division it would leak a bit of mine and forced both to combine. She was in a lot of danger I imagine, continuing that way would have made my chakra to pump more than necessary and possibly kill her. It would leave her body and either disperses itself into the surrounding un-affecting it, it would do the same but without the filters of the seal and leave this whole under quarantine, concentrate itself and form once more my figure without my restraint and destroy anything and everything in its path, or finally and my favorite it would flow back into your body, overpowering and destroying the seal, freeing me and killing you and I lay rampage throughout this whole pathetic village." _**A small on its face imagining such wanton destruction faced Naruto whom looked scared beyond recognition.

"Y-you're serious?" Glee plastered on its face at such possibility. "Then why hasn't it happened?"

The fox looked angry for a moment **_"It would have, I guarantee it, but then your Mother"_** It spat out**_. "came from that dreadful mission, your father started training her into using my chakra and she got accustomed to it fairly easily. She might come to you from time to time to relieve the pressure, whether she know it or not, and I can continue to use that bit, without using yours. Right now I'm almost out of it. I few more weeks, I few more days… who knows? But by then I will need yours once again."_**

There it was that phrase again_. 'I will need you'_ it sent a small shiver down his spine of happiness. "How about that?" he chuckled humorlessly. "To think that the one who is the main reason for my pain, is the one that needs me the most."

The Kyūbi simply looked at him. If it was a taunt to exhort itself, it didn't rise to it. **_"I suppose I can't kill you, can I? After all, you die, I die. Your courage is impressive, little boy… Yes I suppose it's true, I am in need of you, Human."_**

Naruto pondered for a few minutes. It was simply much to take. A bijū needed him. He knows it just sees him as a battery, a need for survival, but it recognize him. No matter that it was thrust into Naruto without his consent. What was done was done and for all that has happened Naruto felt important to it. He felt he could like it and fraternize it. At least so it didn't see him as an enemy. It was locked away inside, surely it would not want to be lonely, Naruto knew that feeling al; to well, and no matter that it was the most powerful monster in the Nations, it could still feel loneliness. "Do you wish to be free?"

It looked at him for a moment, trying to believe he didn't say something wrong. That the boy wasn't trying to trick it. It didn't see that. The boy was honestly just asking him, a hint of curiousness in his voice**_. "Of course! What being would love to be imprisoned in such a way? Even I have a wanton for the fresh air, to feel the earth as it crushes itself under my weight and power. I… wish to be again under much."_**

Naruto nodded understandingly. "What about your family?"

**_"Of course! It doesn't matter that I hate Shukaku, or that Matatabi scares the hell out of me with her hormones. They are my family! Whether I want to or not. Everybody has a family."_**

Naruto sweat dropped at that_. 'There's always someone like that in your family.' _"Do you wish to be reunited with your family?"

**_"...Yes" _**

"Very well, then. We will grow stronger; we will reunite your family and extinguish the idea of Jinchūriki."

* * *

Slowly, Naruto opened his eyes. The ceiling was unfamiliar, but somehow, he didn't really care. He remembered what happened. The fox told him what was happening outside of his body, somehow able to sense the intentions and emotions of others. . He tried to sit up, but dropped back into the cushions, realizing that it was futile. He felt weak, horribly weak. Had Tsunami crawled into his bed again? That would have certainly be good for the Kyūbi, but it didn't mention it before he resurfaced. No, he was alone. Also, this wasn't his room, so he couldn't be in his bed. Why was he here?

Then it slowly came back to him. Everything, not as it was told by the Kyūbi, but his own memories. He remembered the feelings he had, the helplessness of being alone. That they forgot him for five days straight. He remembered running around, using the lamps in the living room as lances to try and break the windows. The pain of scratching at the door, the despair so extreme he hadn't thought to use anything else. The unbearable pain in his arms. That he remembered well. Most was a blur. What key points he remembered were the unparalleled cold and the sounds of the beautiful fireworks marking the end of the festival. Breaking through darkness while loud booms broke the silence that reigned for what seemed like an eternity. He had laid there on the floor, and for the entire day, for his entire birthday, and for those five days and nobody had come for him. His parents had just let him lay there, hunger striking every second and to bleed out. That Tsunami didn't say anything even if she remembered wouldn't surprise Naruto, she was becoming unbearable.

Still, a part of him could not believe what had happened. That part was dying off quicker than his glutton of a sister could devour a bowl of ramen, but a part of him had still held this believe of the parents that would always be there when you really needed them, and that part was crushed.

Naruto looked down to his arms. They were in a cast. Well, he had suspected that his muscles were broken or disfigured. _'Probably the tissue and blood veins as well.'_ Good thing that for all his Genjutsu but **Zekkou Sekai**, he no longer needed hand signs. Well, he needed eye-contact, concentration and some obvious gesture to get it to work, and they were only low-ranking ones, but a success was a success.

Even more so since Naruto was now on his own. While he knew that his parents, who had to have brought him here, as they were the only ones who could open the door, would probably not discard him, from this point on, the only person Naruto would trust and rely on was Naruto. And maybe the fox. Never again would he give anyone a chance to betray him like his parents had.

And speak of the devil, the door opened, and two patches of yellow and red with two people attached to them entered Naruto's field of vision. Strangely, the sight of his parents filled Naruto with no more emotion than he had before, if anything his emotions seemed to fade away.

* * *

Minato and Kushina entered the room. To their surprise, Naruto was awake, something Biwako had said she was not sure if it would happen within the year, depending on how long Naruto's mind would need to get over the shock. Was his almost immediate awakening a good sign for his recovery, or was it bad that it only took a few hours to get over the feeling of being effectively abandoned by his parents in his greatest hour of need?

Minato gulped. "Hi Naruto."

The boy didn't answer. He simply laid in the bed, Biwako had said that the boy would probably feel extremely weak because of the amounts of blood he had lost, so it was unlikely he'd be sitting up if he woke up earlier than the day after tomorrow, but the silence was unnerving.

Kushina tried again. "How are you feeling?"

Naruto's brow raised a fraction of an inch. Kushina cursed herself, it was a stupid question.

Naruto looked at her with those strangely empty eyes. "How long?" He finally asked.

Kushina blinked. "How long until what?"

"Until my arms are healed." Naruto replied.

Kushina and Minato exchanged a glance, each not wanting to be the bearer of the news. Minato grimaced, before slowly replying. "It'll take... time. A lot of time I'm afraid. For now, you may want to learn how to operate with care."

Naruto slowly nodded. If his suspicion was correct, the bones in his arm were probably little more than splinters without the muscle to absorb impact without all the blood and tissue. Fixing all that would probably take weeks, and then he had to go through rehabilitation. All in all, months would probably pass before he was back to normal.

Kushina fidgeted. "Naruto, sweetie, please speak with us." She pleaded. This silence was more than she could take.

Naruto looked at her. "Fine. Where were you this last five days?"

Kushina looked as if she had just been slapped. "I-I..."

Minato helped her. "We regret this, we really do. Tsunami said it yesterday, do you remember?"

Naruto looked at them curiously._ 'It must have been my **Genzou Bunshin no Yoroi**. I didn't imagine it would last so long.'_

"I was not awake, at least not consciously." They flinched at that. Naruto gave both her and his father a cold look. "I waited, but you did not come. My birthday passed, the storm passed, the fireworks went off, and you still weren't there." With that, he closed his eyes and let himself fall into the darkness, the conversation finished from his point of view.

Kushina was pale as a ghost. Her lips moved, but no sound escaped them. Naruto had really stayed conscious the entire time until their return, suffering through what Biwako had said could only have been living hell, waiting for them?

Minato, equally pale, took his wife's shoulder. He tried to speak, but his mouth was so dry, it took him three tries. "I... I don't think he wants to see us right now."

Kushina nodded and they left. That night, neither of them slept.

* * *

Three days later, Naruto was cleared by Biwako to go home, with clear instructions of taking it easy, not doing any strenuous activity for longer than five minutes, putting absolutely no pressure on the arm and not try and channel chakra with it. Naruto nodded, understanding the need of leaving the arm alone to heal.

Of course, that didn't mean he would just sit back and watch his muscles degenerate. He would do bits of light exercise, and continue with his Genjutsu. He would not channel any chakra into his arms, the doctor didn't say such things without a reason after all, but the rest of his body was fair game. And seals were something he could work on without putting strain on his body. Also with his memory if he strained himself he could keep them safe until he could write again.

Good thing too, his calligraphy would not be impaired by this...circumstance. And he could still draw and paint. He had started recently, and it had taken him a while to figure out how to mix colors and create a picture without making a mess out of both himself and the canvas, and he needed more practice, but nobody could say he had no hobbies outside of ninja-work. It was also a perfect disguise, as artists were some of the few people who wandered everywhere and roused no suspicion when looking around or checking out places in detail.

During the next week, he improved on both his art, although those did not last, as he managed to make a for his standards complicated array that summoned the paint back into their jars when Naruto was done, giving him both the opportunity to practice without wasting paint or canvasses, thus saving money, and doing so in secrecy, as whenever Minato and Kushina entered, all they saw was a blank canvas, a remain of something that Naruto, so they believed, once planned to start but never really did. It also kept everything clean, which was another plus.

Still, his arms were a bother right now. It didn't hurt, but it was a handicap that barred him from a few things he wanted to do, not only unarmed combat, but swordsmanship and, what left a bitter taste in his mouth despite not really expecting anything from his parents anymore, jutsu-lessons. With no hand approach as said by Biwako, he couldn't form the hand signs needed for new jutsu or channel the chakra, meaning Tsunami was slowly starting to get ahead of him in those aspects, especially now that his parents could completely focus on her during those lessons and correct her when he had come for the usual lessons, only to be sent away, still upset Naruto, not that he showed it to anyone.

_FLASHBACK_

He had been about enter the dojo, but his mother stood before him, looking regretful. "I'm sorry Naruto, but right now, you're in no condition for swordplay."

Naruto was upset. "Why not?"

Kushina sighed. "Naruto, I'm not trying to be mean, but you're not in a condition to fight. Your left side is an obvious weakness you can't defend, your right can barely hold it for so long. You can't even correctly hold a sword. Please understand, it's just not possible."

Naruto's expression turned emotionless. "And whose fault is that?" He asked bitterly.

Kushina's lips moved, but whatever she had wanted to say got stuck in her throat.

Naruto turned away. "Never mind," he muttered. "I understand _perfectly_."

He walked away. Somehow, he was not very surprised when a few hours later his father stopped him when he moved to jutsu-practice, saying because of his arm he couldn't participate, although it filled him with an even deeper bitterness. They could at least let him learn the basics, learn the signs and how to use it, and Naruto knew Minato knew they could do so, although Minato had no idea that Naruto knew. He had spat out something similar to what he'd said to Kushina and left.

Minato and Kushina met up in the evening, and knowing that Naruto that Naruto was upset, they tried to gather the courage to tell him the truth. That his arm would never really heal and that he couldn't be a Shinobi. That they had canceled his lessons to prevent him from going on a rampage or run off to live as a ronin or something like that was something they didn't even admit to themselves, although they were both worried. Without any real ability or skill, they knew that Naruto would be less likely to run off and get himself killed, as he was smart. Still, neither could shake a bad feeling.

_END_

But that was not to say that Minato and Kushina didn't look out for Naruto. Quite the opposite, after he returned home, there was constantly at least one of them around him, unless it was time for the now solely devoted to Tsunami training or Shinobi-duties, looking out for him and offering assistance wherever he may need it.

While a week ago that would have been the fulfillment of Naruto's wildest dreams, things had changed, and now Naruto was getting annoyed by them buzzing around him because of their guilty conscience. Honestly, he began wishing they would just act like they had before, and leave him alone to spend time with his sister, as he really didn't want to see their faces. That's not to say he didn't use opportunities when they arose, as on the first day home, he had asked his father for a written permission to use the library, and got it. The man had been on such a guilt-trip when seeing his son dragging his body into the house, the left arm little more than a mess of bandages wrapped around each finger, that he probably would have even signed his own execution.

Naruto had used that permission as a reason to spend as much time as possible out of the house, most of it in the library, but he also simply wandered through Konoha. It gave him some much-needed relief from his family, although the ANBU were getting annoying.

Speaking of his family, Tsunami was slowly getting unbearable. She was smart enough not to do anything but send dirty looks while her parents were in earshot, but when alone, she was getting really nasty. While she couldn't blame any pranks on him right now, she kept taking shots at his injury and kept bragging that she could still take lessons, something that actually got under his skin.

However, there was something going on that he didn't know about. The first indication was when Naruto had been walking around and accidentally stumbled upon a training-ground where a group of the main-branch of the Hyūga-clan was currently practicing their techniques. He had paused to look at the display; it was after all the greatest of all Taijutsu of Konoha, assuming one compared the damage they could cause on a specific level of proficiency with the style. No other Taijutsu-style allowed its user to cause the same degree of damage at little training.

Of course, after standing there for a few minutes, one of the Hyūga had looked his way. At first he seemed angry, but after looking at him closely, his eyes filled with something that could almost be described as pity and he and all others just went on with their training, ignoring him.

What Naruto didn't know was that the news of the Hokage's son being permanently crippled and was now unable to become a Shinobi, since he was unable to even mold chakra correctly, had spread throughout the village, although nobody talked of it often and the children had no idea. And as is usual with rumors, this one like many others before it spiraled out of control, until everyone believed Naruto was unable to produce chakra or even feel his arm. So the Hyūga and all others he would observe in the next weeks saw him not as someone spying on their training, but as a broken figure that out of a masochistic craving watched others practice what was forever out of his reach, just so that he could feel some connection to the Shinobi-life. Ironically, the harshest clans, the Hyūga and the Uchiha, were the most tolerant of his existence, both pitying him for the loss of what they considered the most precious gift, the ability to properly move one's body and the ability to use chakra and leaving him alone as long as he didn't bother anyone. After all, what harm could one boy do? They didn't teach him any secrets he could spill, not that it was likely he would even if they did, as he was the son of the Hokage. What could it hurt to let him watch?

Naruto didn't understand what was going on, but he would not look a gift horse in the mouth as he observed other shinobi training in their art. As an artist and a genjutsu-prodigy, even if unacknowledged, he had an eye for details and a sharp mind that could analyze almost anything. So as he watched the shinobi fight, he learned. He saw how they moved in combat, how they used their bodies to put maximum power into their attacks, how they aimed for the points that would do the most damage, how they held themselves when they threw different weapons, how they held and moved theirs swords, and what basic principles allowed the different techniques to work. He also memorized handsigns, picking the jutsu apart to see how they worked. Just because he intended to be a genjutsu- and seal-master didn't mean he had to be helpless if he for whatever reason was not able to use either.

However, with his careful observation, he was slowly gaining another ability that he himself did not know about, but would perfect in the following months and years. From looking how people moved, how they held themselves and to a certain degree how their chakra flowed, his ability as a Watcher was weak, but it was there, he would eventually be able to evaluate a person's talent, determining what training would be best from minutes of observation. But that would not come until after he left Konoha.

But even though he did so much, he neither neglected his seal-work nor his Genjutsu. It was amazing just how much knowledge the library contained, and even though little of it was actual techniques, it turned out that non-clan Shinobi and even a few clan-Shinobi had left scrolls about different theories and rules on all types of jutsu, including a few scrolls on the finer workings of Fūinjutsu written by Minato Namikaze himself, in the library for public viewing. Of course Naruto was not foolish enough to take anything he read at face-value, and always made sure he was not working with some absurd theory before incorporating it into his work. His understanding of seals was now on a level where even Minato and Jiraiya, themselves would be pressed to find a rule that Naruto didn't know. Of course, when it came to practical application and the creation of seals, they were light-years ahead of Naruto, but he now knew enough that he could soon start with seal-crafting, and although he knew enough to start with small, low-power seals to avoid blowing himself up on accident, he had a few ideas that he had developed when he was crippled.

His first idea would be basic, but if it worked, it could revolutionize the ninja-world. It would be twelve seals, located on basically random locations on the body or a weapon. What made them special were that they would be the equal to the twelve hand signs, each one could be program to go through a certain sequence-code meaning that a Shinobi simply had to charge the seals he wanted to with chakra, and he could use any jutsu while having both hands free to fight enemies and give them no warning he was about to blast them with something. Allowing the user to activate a jutsu with just sending the necessary amount of chakra into the seal, which would take less than a second compared to maybe even twenty depending on the length of the sequence and the skill and speed of the caster? Perhaps even some additional seals to hide the sequence-seal when not used, so that someone knowledgeable with seals could not read the jutsu by simply seeing the seal when inactive.

On the field of Genjutsu, Naruto had managed to complete and seallessly activate it. It was not as strong or draining as **Zekkou Sekai**, nor was it as intricate with the hallucinations it caused, but it wasn't supposed to be. **Mekura** was not designed to be flashy, or give its victim a false world to live in. It had one simple purpose; the user would not be noticed. When used, all others simply didn't realize he was there. They would subconsciously walk around him to avoid bumping into him, but they would not realize why they did it or even that they did it. Even better, not only was the user unnoticeable, but so were indications that he was there. To give an example, they wouldn't just overlook him, but footprints made by him on a muddy road. Of course it wasn't perfect. Assuming he activated a security-system that raised an alarm, the people would notice the alarm and realize there was something wrong. Although they would not directly see him, at that point they would assume there was a Genjutsu and dispel it. Also, if he slapped someone, they would feel it and again know he was there, even if they couldn't immediately locate him. So it couldn't be used for assassination, or at least he'd need a different trick to escape the crime-scene. Still, it was invaluable when walking around the village without the ANBU on his heels, although he didn't dare enter clan-compounds or the Hokage's tower with it.

His efforts to cast Genjutsu using a catalyst other than sight were currently not going so well, but he knew it would take time.

By now, his bones and muscle mass had healed, thanks to old woman and her assistant that regularly checked on him in the hospital, but to his frustration, the nerves had apparently been damaged and he could barely move his arm from the elbow up, nor could he channel any chakra through it.

* * *

Naruto eventually realized that he liked his lunches in the wild outside more than his dinners with the family. Those had been extremely awkward, as both Minato and Kushina had tried to start a conversation with him, only to realize they had nothing to really talk about, as they knew nothing of his hobbies, of what he liked to do. They knew he spent time reading, and recently heard he seemed to be in the presence of some Hyūga and Uchiha, although they didn't know if he talked to them, but there were few topics of discussion they could share with him.

To make matters worse, Tsunami was being a worse brat than usual, so Minato and Kushina had little choice but to focus more and more attention on her to keep her out of trouble than on their son, who apparently didn't want it and spent more time outside than with them, so within two to three months, things had slowly returned to how they'd been before, Naruto's **Mekura **helping a bit, although he used if very sparsely on his parents. Tsunami had been under it practically nonstop since the day Naruto had completed it. Minato and Kushina did give him more attention than before, and tried to make up with him at least three times a week, and although Naruto didn't like it, he felt that he was slowly getting, he couldn't call it forgiving, but he was more tolerant of them, a part of him apparently still wanting to trust his parents, who really did make an effort.

Naruto had gone to bed in a good mood; his arms seemed to be getting better, as he had managed to grab a plastic cup with it and drink. Granted, the entire thing took almost half a minute, but Naruto saw it as a good sign. He had known that progress would be slow; admittedly he hadn't thought it'd take this long, and any progress was better than no progress, as it showed he was on the road to recovery.

Looking back, this entire mess had not only been bad for Naruto, as without it, not only would he be not even close to his current level with seals, as the library's knowledge would have been beyond his grasp, but he would also never have thought of a number of ideas he had come up with that would make things easier for those who had lost limbs, whether arms, hands or just fingers. Granted, he hadn't managed to actually complete those ideas, but he had a concept, which meant by his still childlike logic that the lion's share of the work was done. He didn't know that Minato had needed four years after coming up with the concept of the **Hiraishin** to work out all the details and actually complete it.

But still, Naruto fell asleep with a content smile, dreaming of what he would do once he was finally back to normal.

* * *

Naruto's return from dreamland was not an easy one. He felt weak and drowsy, and it took him over a minute to even realize he was awake. What had alerted him was the pain that had come with every breath. His lungs were on fire, his limbs seemed to be filled with lead, and it felt like a hedgehog was starting a rampage inside of his head. His itching eyes told him that it was four in the morning, and everything hurt. What was going on?

The answer was simple, yet for a second, Naruto's mind simply refused to believe it. Tsunami, who in the past weeks made it clear, in those few moments he allowed her to notice him, that she hated Naruto's guts, was laying on his bed, beneath his blanket, one hand somehow having crawled into his the jacket of his sleepwear resting right above his stinging heart. How on earth had she overcome **Mekura**? He knew exactly that he had put her, and for a change his parents, under it just last evening! While he had used the version that faded by itself, it should have taken at least another day until they should become aware of Naruto's existence.

The blond boy gathered all his strength. "Tsunami, get out of my bed!" He hissed.

Tsunami blinked, looked up, and her face turned into a grimace. "What are _you_ doing here?" She hissed back.

Naruto took a calming breath. "In case you haven't noticed, this is my room."

Tsunami looked around, noticed this to be true, blew Naruto a raspberry, and bolted out of the room, eager to get some space between the two of them.

Naruto sat in his bed, wondering how long he'd have to bear these visits from Tsunami that only brought him pain. Suddenly he felt a burning sensation in his throat, he felt as if he had to throw up. He left his bed and staggered towards the bathroom connected to his room. He made it to the sink before he collapsed in a fit of coughs. Were it not for the sound-blocking seals that his father had installed on all bathrooms to ensure privacy, Naruto was certain half of Konoha would have been shaken up by his newest plague.

_'Kyūbi?'_

**_´Yeah, it's that thing again. It seems she still isn't used to it. Had she not done so in her first few years, you wouldn't be looking like this.'_**

_'Looking like what?'_

**_'…Look at your arms and nose.'_**

After a few minutes, the fit ended his gaze was drawn to his bandage hand and the mirror. His bandages were red with blood and his nose continued to release it too.

Naruto stared at his bloody hands. There, sticking to his fingers was the proof of what he had told his parents all the time that Tsunami's presence was harmful to him. But only now did he truly realize how harmful. _'This can't go on.'_ Naruto told _himself 'Either Natsuki is banned from my room... or I have to leave. It is getting worse, and I am certain that unless something happens immediately, I will die.'_

The Kyūbi didn't respond.

Naruto left his room and headed towards his parents. With evidence like this, they had to do something, or else he would lose what little faith in them was left, and pack his bags for good. As it turned out, his parents were still caught in **Mekura**, giving Naruto opportunity to do something that he could normally never do; he could eavesdrop on his parents without them noticing.

At first he had planned to simply cancel the jutsu, but...

"We have to tell Naruto. It's just getting worse the longer we take, and I feel like breaking down every time I see him." Kushina stated.

Naruto froze, and focused all his attention to his ears. This seemed serious.

Minato sighed. "You're right, but it's just not that easy. Every time I want to tell him, my throat tightens up. It's like my tongue just fails me, or the words themselves don't want to be spoken."

Kushina laughed joylessly. "How poetic we are when it comes to excusing how pathetic we are."

Minato looked at his wife. "He has a right to know, and Biwako is right when she says that waiting will only make it worse, but how, that's the great question. Honestly, I wish I could just order Biwako to do it, she has experience in those kind of things, and aren't usually doctors the ones who deliver such news?"

A shrug answered him. "Usually. But can you blame her for dropping that duty on us?"

Now Minato was the one joylessly laughing. "As much as I'd like to, no. This is hell. I've actually been practicing my confession to Naruto for weeks, but it just won't come out when I want it to."

Kushina nodded. "I know. I did too, but when I see the hope in his eyes, I just can't bring myself to crush that."

Minato sighed again. "It's much harder than initially expected. It's not like I can just walk up to Naruto and say 'Hello son, I forgot to tell you something. Remember when you broke and mushed your arm on your birthday? Well, that killed off most of your nerves and shattered your chakra-paths, so you'll never be a Shinobi, or even able to use your arm again. My bad.' How do you tell your child that his lifetime-dream can never become real because you forgot him on his own birthday?"

Had Naruto been holding something, he would have dropped it.

Naruto's eyes widened. Shivering, he looked at his arms, which were lifelessly hanging on his side. Suddenly everything made sense. His parents' behavior, the pitying looks, the odd tolerance the Shinobi had shown when he had watched them train, even the most dangerous and secret jutsu. They had known! Everyone had known! EVERYONE HAD KNOWN THAT HIS ARM WOULD NEVER HEAL AND NOBODY TOLD HIM!

Naruto had to get out of here, or he would go insane. Already the urge to smash things was getting unbearable. He ran out of the compound, **Mekura** ensuring that his father ignored the small impulse of the gate opening and closing, as it wasn't an alarm, but merely a notification. His parents had in the meantime decided that the news would be delivered on their next planned holiday aka day off, which was in three weeks, and slowly turned to different topics.

Naruto didn't care what else his parents had to say, he needed to be alone right now.

Minato frowned. He had just gotten a really bad vibe, but he couldn't imagine why. He checked the impulses of his seals, having learned from the birthday-catastrophe to trust his gut more than his head in such situations, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. So whatever it was, it wasn't in the compound. Probably in his office, printed on deceivingly white, innocent-looking paper.

The Chūnin-exams were coming up in Kumo, and he had to organize everything, seeing that Kumo was not an allied village, the work was piling. He had no idea if he would be home before tomorrow evening. "Kushina, I'm a bit worried. I won't be here until tomorrow evening at the earliest, and you..."

Kushina nodded. "I have border-patrol for the next few days, as I am still an active Shinobi. I know. But Minato, I trust your seal work, and don't forget, we have both been gone for a few days before, and they were just fine. They'll call friends over, have lots of fun, and make a mess out of the house. And in an emergency, there are at least three ANBU in the nearby outpost at all times. Not to mention that our friends and fellow clan-heads always send some poor soul to make sure the children don't blow up the house while without parental supervision." Her voice grew quieter "And I don't think either of our children will mind some time for themselves."

Minato nodded with bitter taste in his mouth. The situation with Naruto was getting worse for them every day, when they saw him trying to work with arms that might never work again. He felt pathetic. He had handled with the Kyūbi and the Shinigami, but in front of his own son, everything that he prided himself in, his silver tongue, his wits, his charisma and confidence just evaporated. He couldn't recall a moment in his life where he had felt as helpless as when he stood before his son and tried to explain the true extent of what had happened to the boy. He only hoped that Naruto would not learn of his crippling from anyone but his parents.

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, you might get it. The gods had granted Minato's wish, but not in the way he had wanted.

* * *

Naruto was storming away. He had no goal in mind; he just had to get away. Fortunately, the ANBU watching this sector had, somewhat accidentally, been caught in one of his temporary **Mekura** two days ago, so for another hour, he was safe from their eyes, and seeing that it wasn't even 5 AM yet, the streets were practically deserted.

Naruto left the main streets, where a few early risers, like bakers, were already up and about, and instead went into the darker alleys, where he was alone. Unknown to Naruto, he was approaching a sector of Konoha that nobody had entered since the Kyūbi-attack. It wasn't that they didn't want to, but in this sector, the Kyūbi's youki had gathered and seemingly gained a mind of its own, leaching onto any living being that entered it and draining it dry, even converting the victim's flesh and bones into energy, leaving nothing behind but agonized cries that stopped abruptly. Of course the youki's territory had been fenced, but as fate would have it, the part of the fence on the side Naruto was approaching from had been destroyed, and since nobody ever went even close to that sector, nobody had found out and repaired it.

Naruto was blissfully ignorant of what trouble he was in as he walked through the fence's remains and into what had been termed 'the Dead Zone', still upset about what he had learned. While he had lost his faith in his parents, this newest betrayal had stung deeply. 'Why am I even surprised?' He asked himself, before going vocal.

"I'm a fucking cripple and nobody tells me! Now it all makes sense. Why should I waste my time training Naruto swordsmanship, he won't be able to wield one anyways. Why teach Naruto jutsu, it's not like he'll be able to use them. Why bother training him in anything, it's not like he'll ever be a Shinobi! Let him watch, it's not like he'll ever be able to perform anything he sees!"

He kicked an empty can, making it fly through a window twenty feet away. Apparently, sand had filled the thing, as the glass shattered. Naruto didn't care. He broke down, hysteric sobs shaking his body. It was all coming down around him. His world was crumbling, and there was nothing he could do. His arms were gone for good, no more than chakraless flesh and he had learned that Biwako was considered the greatest medic in the village, if she couldn't fix it, and apparently she had been the one to proclaim that it couldn't be fixed, then there was no hope.

"It's not fair." Naruto muttered, bitter tears running down his cheeks. Why always on him. What heinous act had he committed to deserve this? Why couldn't the gods torment someone else, just for a change? "Why me? Why does everything bad have to happen to me?"

Naruto was not the type for brooding and self-pity, but right now, it was just too much. So entranced by his misery, Naruto did not even notice the red mist that had formed behind him, seeping out of all cracks, forming into an almost solid wave of red.

* * *

The youki was not really intelligent, nor did it have any real instincts. But with it's time spent hunting for anything that foolishly approached, it had learned to not simply latch itself onto the prey while spread out too thinly, or else the sustenance could slip free and escape. Also, as many creatures had an instinct that warned of rapidly approaching objects, the youki had developed a simple tactic. First it would gather, then slowly and carefully approach and glue itself to the body without actually doing anything. Once the prey was 'secured', the bulk of the youki would shoot forward, engulfing the unfortunate victim, drain it of all chakra, before beginning to turn the rest into something that would further support the youki as a whole.

Following it's tactic, tiny strands of youki had attached themselves to the newest prey, a much larger one than youki usually captured, and prepared the rush. By the time the creature noticed, it would be far too late. NOW!

The red wave branded against the body, working its way from the bottom of the backside towards the head. The prey still hadn't noticed anything, as its eyes were shut. However, it also didn't seem to feel anything. If such a complicated emotion as confusion could be felt by the youki, this would be it. However, it spread, covering the entire body.

Suddenly it released the creature, as if burned. The youki had found that not only was this organism resistant to youki, but it was also flooded with itself. The youki had sensed itself inside of the organism, and released it, deeming it friendly.

**_'Human! Did you feel that?'_**

Naruto sobbed a bit "What?"

**_'Here, this area, this whole place! Is flooded with my chakra! I felt it! It seemed to have grown, eating anything that came close to it. This is it! With it I should be able to sustain myself for months, maybe years if I ration it!'_**

Naruto hadn't even noticed just how close to death he had just come, although he felt a burning sensation, he had accredited it to his grief, but now knew what it was. By the time he opened his eyes, the mass had dispersed.

_'It's gone.'_

**_'Damn it! Find it! If I'm right I can do something you'll like.'_**

Naruto sniffed. _'okay'_

Naruto had enough of this. He had cried his heart out, and it had felt good, but enough was enough. He was not an emo, nor a brooder. He had received a blow that he hadn't expected; it was time to get back on his feet. His arms were screwed for the foreseeable future. Fine, he had come this far without them, he'd go further without it. His twelve-seal-set was almost complete, it just needed some more fleshing out and tests. With them, he would be able to erase his jutsu-difficulties, not that he didn't plan on learning one-handed seals anyways. As for Taijutsu, there was always a way, he just had to find it!

Still, this newest betrayal had hit him hard. He hadn't noticed it, but he had been starting to let his parents back into his heart, which made it all the more painful. Naruto realized that this was the first time since his birthday that he was actually angry with his parents. He had been displeased and annoyed, but never truly angry. He had allowed his parents to hurt him again.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Rest assured, it won't happen again." Naruto muttered to himself. To him, his blood-relatives would from now on be nothing more than landlords and unwanted roommates, and if turned out that he couldn't heal his arm here, or if it healed, he was out of here.

He didn't have to worry about time. For one thing, he hadn't even entered the academy, and from his fa... Minato Namikaze's words, he wouldn't be entering it, so there was no hurry to leave. He would be a civilian, and civilians had the right to leave whenever they damn well pleased. They couldn't make him a missing-nin, as he had never served Konoha, and thus could not desert it. The only potential problems were the clan-laws.

Every clan-member had the right to leave and go elsewhere without leaving the clan as long as they weren't bound otherwise, like with Shinobi-duties. That was the reason the Hyūga made such generous use of the **Kagonotori no Juin** (**Caged Bird Seal)**. If they didn't, any Hyūga that was declared a servant would pack his bag and be gone. However, only the clan-head could officially release one from the clan, meaning that a Hyūga who left was still a Hyuuga, and a Namikaze who left was still a Namikaze. If they made it clear that they had no intention of returning to the clan, the clan still had the right to call them into service, meaning that for a set period of time, or until a certain number of missions were completed, the 'free' clan-member had to return and serve the clan and the village the clan was allied with. On the upside, once that was done, if the person demanded to be released from the clan, the head had no option but to do so. The man had done his duty, and there was nothing more they could demand from him. Even better, such people could leave the village without any repercussions as long as they hadn't committed a crime, as they were essentially hired on a mercenary-basis. The only catch for the clan was that the order to return had to be delivered personally. That didn't mean a clan-member had to do it, but the order had to be given in written form, and the one who delivered had to give it directly to the one it was addressed to. However, once the courier had located the recipient and said recipient realized what it was about, he could not run away, block the courier or ignore the order. If they found and identified him and had the letter, then the man or woman would have to serve their time.

And while the idea of cutting all ties with his relatives sounded sweet, Naruto had no intention of wasting four years of his life, as he doubted they'd give him the B-,A- and S-ranked missions to shorten the time, serving Konoha. So once Naruto was out of Konoha, he would drop off of the face of the earth. He already had gathered a few materials, namely jutsu that could not be dispelled and would change his appearance. And it was his stupid sister of all people who had given him the idea!

She had screwed up a **Henge** in the way that she actually transformed into what she wanted, only that the result hadn't been good for her. She had spat blood for five minutes, and anyone without the Kyūbi's chakra would have likely been screwed up for good, but Naruto had analyzed what she had done, how she had done it, and what one should do to minimize the damage on the body. It was far from perfect, but he could now permanently change the color of his eyes and hair, and slight alterations on his skin. With seals he might make them as permanent as he liked without breaking concentration.

Still, he needed to find an outlet for his remaining anger. He looked around, and gave the wall a fairly powerful kick. "What the hell?" He called as he jumped back.

Half the wall had collapsed. Naruto looked around, and for the first time realized something. "Where the hell am I?"

He was in a place he had never seen before. The place was obviously abandoned. The buildings looked damaged, some had collapsed, some looked like they had been crushed by something, and nowhere even a trace of life could be found. Naruto knew he hadn't left Konoha, but it sure seemed like it. _'This most have been a place where you stayed the most in the attack Kyūbi.'_ He looked around, and saw the monument. At least he could orientate himself now. Still, this place was dangerous. He looked through the newly-made hole in the wall... and blinked. The falling fragments had smashed through what appeared to be a hidden door. Naruto knew he should be leaving, but his curiosity was stronger. He carefully entered the building, prepared to jump out of the way the moment anything rumbled, but nothing came. He noticed that the walls and ceiling were supported by steel beams, meaning that it was fairly unlikely that the whole thing would simply collapse. So he carefully approached the hole in the ground.

His suspicion had been right; it led to a set of stairs. Naruto had to climb a bit to avoid the rubble, but he could advance.

"Who would build something like this?" Naruto muttered. "What is it? A deserted ANBU-base? Maybe this was once a ROOT-station, before the Sandaime closed that branch? Rats, I can't even see my own hands, if I only had some light."

The next moment, he nearly had a heart-attack and jumped up in shock. Torches had lit up, lighting the way to the bottom of the stairs roughly twenty feet down in a ghostly blue light. Naruto looked around nervously. "Hello? Is anybody there?" No answer. "Uargh, it's so bright, turn off the torches!" Nothing. "It's obviously not voice-activated. What else could it be?"

He looked around, and noticed that there were two seals above the step he had just rested his foot on. Apparently they were a detection-barrier, sending a thread of chakra between them, and lighting the torches when interrupted. Good. "Shit. What if this place is booby-trapped? HELLO? I'M LOST!"

Nothing. Naruto decided to proceed, with extreme caution. And indeed, he found no less than seven traps, ranging from more seal-threads over fake stairs to a section of hallway behind the stairs where he had to paint a certain array on a piece of paper before the ceiling came down and crushed him. Finally, he was standing in a chamber, apparently the only chamber, as there were no further paths. Again burning torches lined the walls, sending their flickering light and giving everything a creepy feeling.

The room itself was a disappointment for any treasure-hunter. There was a stone basin let into the floor in front of him, not big enough for Naruto, but it would be enough to bathe an infant or wash his face. The far wall had a desk, a drawer packed with folders, and a few broken clipboards that looked as if someone had thrown them on the floor next to a number of odd machines that Naruto could make no sense of. On his left side he saw a row of six long cages, each containing beds of varying sizes. The beds in the first two were adult-size, the next three growing smaller until the final cage, in which there were at least forty cribs. What was odd was that all were fastened with leather-straps, as if to keep them in bed. Perhaps this had been a station for insane ninja?

The wall on the right on the other hand gained Naruto's attention. It was filled with jars containing a liquid that in this light looked greenish. All jars were made of glass, the same size and labeled. It was also the wall closest to the basin. Naruto approached, looked if there were any traps. Seeing none, he grabbed the closest jar and held it to his face, trying to decipher the writing.

"Who wrote this, a chimpanzee? Even Tsunamidoesn't write this bad. Let's see, KU... RA...RA…MA? I have no idea what that's supposed to be... K+? What's that supposed to OUCH!"

The glass had become brittle with the years of exposure, and when Naruto tightened his grip, it shattered. A few splinters pierced into his flesh while the liquid splashed everywhere. "Uargh, yuck! I think I swallowed some. Eew. Tastes worse than the medicine for my arm, I didn't think it was possible." He looked around for something to rinse his mouth with, but came up empty. He dropped the broken glass and looked at his palm. It wasn't too bad, only one of the glass-fragments had pierced into his flesh, and enough was sticking out for Naruto to carefully grab it with his teeth and pull it out. It bled a bit, but otherwise it seemed fine. He'd get it disinfected later.

**_'Human… it's here. It's really concentrated here. Don't leave. It might attack you. Leave it for now. I'll take care of it.'_**

He looked around and saw that one of the jars was not standing in the cabinet like the others, but on the desk. More careful this time, Naruto approached, not touching it. He read the label, and it was a different one. He frowned to make out the kanji. "Accelerated... whoever wrote this needs lessons, badly. Wait, is that supposed to mean recreation? Accelerated recreation? Then maybe the other thing wasn't Kurama, but cure, and the name of some disease. "Is this stuff" He looked at the jars "medicine?" His eyes wandered to the bottle of accelerated regeneration, to the basin, and back again.

Then he carefully picked the jar up, carefully as if it was a little bird, and carried it to the basin. He pulled off the lid, and poured it into the basin. "Medicine works best when directly applied where it's supposed to work, so..." He looked around, before picking up a shard of glass and making a shallow cut on the back of his useless left hand. Then he lifted it up and let it soak in the liquid, prepared to pull it out on a moment's notice if something bad happened. After all, it was not like his arms could get much worse. Still, better safe than sorry, so he cut off the arm's circulation before letting it take a dip. If the stuff was really bad, he'd make it outside before collapsing, seeing that the traps were deactivated. Then he would most likely be found before anything horrible happened. Who knew, he might actually reach the hospital himself.

**_'Whatever you are doing, keep doing it. It seems to be curious…'_**

"Great Naruto, very optimistic." He scolded himself. Then he hissed. The pain wasn't unbearable; it was really like being disinfected with alcohol. It burned and stung, but one could grind his teeth and bear it. Still, Naruto was about to pull out his hand, when he noticed something. "Wait, am I hallucinating?"

He narrowed his eyes, blinking a tear of pain away, and had a closer look. "YES!" The cut was getting smaller! It was a slow process, so slow that one really had to focus to notice, but it seemed to be working!

In fact, Naruto felt the stinging pain wander up his arm, and had to grin despite the pain. Even though it was pain, Naruto had never had more feeling in that arm since he woke up in the hospital. The only reason for such feelings was that his nerves were healing, even if just a little bit. He looked at the jars again. If all of this was medicine...

And here a part of Naruto that had been practically removed by his life reared its head. In this moment, he was no longer the calm and collected prodigy. The minor and very painful success on his arm had made him giddy, and reduced him to what he physically was: a child with free pick in a toy-store.

"A lot helps a lot." Naruto muttered as he grabbed more and more jars, pouring a bit of everything into the basin without even looking at the in any case unreadable descriptions, a wide grin on his face. After this, he probably would never have to be afraid of getting sick again.

Had he bothered to read, he would have noticed that the tags didn't have the names of medications on them; all of them had a combination of DNA of the Kurama clan, like _Version 1, V. 2, V.3, Version 3+ and Final Version._

* * *

What he had found was in reality one of Orochimaru's first laboratories, which he had abandoned long before he actually left Konoha, both because it was too small and ill-equipped for what he needed, not to mention that the experiment had all failed. At the time, Orochimaru had gathered genetic material from the Kurama clan, leaving the other clan's DNA in his other lab, from anyone he could find that had anything special, and used it to create a mixture that, so was the plan, could grant the abilities to other people who did not originally possess it. While he had been able to create the solution, all attempts to inject it into another person had failed. The solution did its job, but the body rejected the changes, causing death. Orochimaru had used younger and younger hosts, eventually resorting to building incubators and letting embryos absorb the liquid, but not even they were able to withstand the changes. When the last one died, Orochimaru had given it up. This was not the way to gain Kekkei genkai, so it was of no use. Originally he had intended to destroy the place, but before he got the opportunity, he was deployed in war, so he had just removed all traces that indicated just who had been working here and left. Who cared if the lab was found, there was no trace of Orochimaru's presence, and everything left in it was useless anyways, he cared neither for the corpses, the anyways outdated equipment, nor for what was left of the solutions. If it was found, he would just have to lay low for a while. He had even left most of the traps deactivated, showing just how little he cared for it. Eventually, Orochimaru had forgotten the lab even existed, a new method of gaining Kekkei genkai involving directly injecting the DNA into the embryo taking up his entire attention. After the Kyūbi had attacked, Orochimaru had written the lab off for good. If it still existed, all evidence would be eroded away by the youki-residue by the time anyone entered it.

Now, due to unique circumstances, Naruto's body was filled with youki of the Kyūbi, which was flowing fairly docile through his system because of his 'sisters attack earlier on, as the goal it was supposed to do was not destruction of the carrier, but in fact toughening him, or, if you considered who it was supposed to be in, her. This youki had begun to pool on his arms, the one section of Naruto's body where his natural chakra-flow did not obstruct it. So when Naruto chose to make the cut there of all places, the youki was more than prepared to deal with the new arrival, integrating it into Naruto's system after deeming it beneficial.

However, the youki inside of Naruto was limited, and so was its ability to incorporate or destroy foreign substances, more so since this was not the body of a Jinchūriki. In fact, it was nothing short of a miracle that the process of gaining the increased recreation had not killed Naruto, who was blissfully unaware of just how deep the shit he was about to jump into was.

* * *

Naruto looked at the basin. It was filled almost to the top with bluish-green liquid. Getting all of the jars had been a pain, since he had to move the desk and chair to reach the ones on the very top, and being careful not to drop any. But in the end, he had succeeded. The basin was filled with some liquid from every jar, and he had used one of the weird metal instruments to mix it thoroughly. His arm was still aching, but now he could actually move his index-finger a bit without the other three following suit. Soon he'd be better than ever.

He grabbed another shard of glass and made a deeper cut in his hands, this time cutting a bit up the arms, while being careful not to sever any veins or arteries. What good was super-healing and immunity against diseases if you bled out before it could activate?

Naruto looked into the turquoise liquid one last time. "With this, I'll be better than ever!" He called, while letting his hand slide beneath the surface. He smiled to himself. "I'll make the stupid arms move, and if it's the last thing I do!" Little did he know that the odds of it really being the last thing he'd do were so close to 100% that not even Tsunade would have made a bet on it.

It started with the burning he had already felt before, and for the span of roughly ten seconds, that was really all there was, a pain that was bearable, but getting stronger. Then...

"GUARG? Gurgle ARG-...!"

From one moment to the next, his arm exploded in a wave of agony equal to when his arms broke, then worse as it spread through his entire body. Naruto didn't even have the strength to cry out. He was twitching uncontrollably, foam bubbled out of his mouth and dampening the gurgles, his pupils had contracted to a point where one couldn't even see them. Blood ran from his nose and ears, and his skin had turned gray as ash. In the last moment before merciful darkness surrounded him, Naruto cursed himself for his stupidity.

* * *

One solution the youki had easily handled. Two had been a small effort, but no problem. However, this whirlpool of liquids that were never intended to be mixed to begin with overruns all defenses it could set up. The solution was slowly seeping up the arm, not only killing but literally shredding all cells it came in contact with. The host's entire body was wracked by seizures of protest at the invading source of painful death. In a Jinchūriki it would have been easy to fight the liquid off, but here the reinforcement of youki was cut off, meaning that what was currently in the body was all that was there to fight. And there was not enough to prevent doom. This youki was also slightly diluted, as it had not been released directly by the bijū, but of a Jinchūriki. It was simply not designed to exist outside of a living organism.

One thing that one must understand about bijū is that they are comprised solely of youki. There is no flesh, no bones, no internal organs. There is a center of will, generally located in the head, where the mind was, but no real brain or nerves. What kept the bijū solid was the fact that even though the central mind was focused on one spot, every single flicker of youki was filled with a certain set of instincts, which tell it: 'Any energy-source that gets in contact is to be drained and all energy is to be absorbed and converted to youki unless ordered otherwise', 'youki with identical signature is not to be absorbed, but assisted and aided', and 'the continued existence of the collective has highest priority'. In a way, a bijū was nothing more than an ant-hive of demonic energy. There was the central mind, the queen if you will, and the remaining youki was the workers and soldiers that absorbed nourishment for the creation of more youki and for the simple youki, there was no hesitation when it had to separate from the main body to deal with an attacking force, even if the price was its own existence. However, for youki that for whatever reason was left behind, the last order changed. Since there was no central will, it gradually changed its main-goal to 'self-preservation until reuniting with the main-body is possible'.

These leftover youki was important for the bijū, since such youki gained intelligence and could at the time of reuniting very well be smarter and more knowledgeable than the main-body, in which case the information and intelligence was shared with the collective to ensure that the 'mind' was strengthened. When a bijū was sealed inside a living host, it generally absorbed information from the host's brain to increase its own strength, a two-edged sword. The information was not mere knowledge and intelligence, but also personality up to a point. The bijuu could, if smart enough, purge itself from the tainted thoughts if they were deemed detrimental, but the process had to be done quickly and the knowledge absorbed from the host should not be used as the center of the personality, as an increasing number of sealing with an increasing number of personality-traits taken from the hosts would destabilize the personality, leading to madness, as in the Ichibi's case. Kyūbi, having being cut off to milk for knowledge, had been reliant on these residue, which was good for its mental state.

One must realize just how close youki of identical signature were to each other to understand what happened next. The youki in Naruto's body was getting overwhelmed, and knowing that it needed this host, did something unusual for youki-residue. With Kyūbi's permission it sent a wave of its own as a distress signal at the large mass of itself just outside.

The entire mass of youki in Konoha, spread out thinly over a space of more than a square-mile seemed to look up. A shiver went through red mist, and it rose from all corners to swarm towards one building like a giant swarm of red locusts rose up, as one poured down the formerly hidden passageway and slammed into the chamber with the force of a typhoon. Whatever happened to be around in that room was pulverized in the steadily increasing pressure of the youki, with the exceptions of Naruto, who was lifted into the air almost delicately, the youki having successfully identified the source of the S.O.S.-signal, and the liquid that had caused the mess, that was blown out of the crumbling basin and into the air, where the youki did a rudimentary analysis of the root of the problem. As the mass interacted with the youki inside of Naruto, the outside youki found something it had been looking for ever since it had been separated. Its master The Kyūbi.

In fact, in Naruto the youki had found something that was not only rare, but something that had never existed before. Naruto was an anomaly, or rudely stated, a freak of nature.

A Jinchūriki was different from a normal human. For one thing, a pregnancy took a month more and was dangerous for the mother's life. Another, lesser known fact was that as soon as a Jinchūriki was created no matter if infant or old man, a new function of the body started a new reaction. It had been labeled a 'surge'. The idea was simple. After the seal had solidified and everything settled, the bijū sent waves of youki through the host's body. This was not even done out of evil intent, it was in fact to get the body used to the youki that would eventually be flowing through the body. The first times this happened it was extremely painful for the Jinchūriki, and then the body slowly got used to the surges and eventually not even noticed when it happened. This was necessary to prevent the body from being torn apart if the youki had to be unleashed. If a Jinchūriki unleashed more chakra than their body could handle, it usually began with the skin tearing off, going on with damaging muscles and internal organs until the bones were crushed and if the flow was not stopped by then, the brain stood risk of being liquefied.

The case of Naruto and Tsunami was truly unique. Not only was the creation of the jinchuuriki in an unusually early stage of life, directly after birth, but there was a twin. Not an identical twin, but close enough. What Tsunami had been doing, subconsciously, was that instead of biting her teeth together and bear with the surges until she couldn't feel them any longer, was that, by direct contact with her twin, she was able to reroute the youki from her into his system. While Natsuki had no idea what was going on, the subconscious knowledge of 'when it hurts, get to Naruto and all gets better' was anchored in her mind. And while Naruto's body was not the one the youki was supposed to be in, with its masters help and the genetic makeup it would work like it would with its original host and make him instead a partial Jinchūriki. Of course, Naruto was not a Jinchūriki; his seal wasn't made like that, it only housed the soul, so he lacked what was really needed to handle the youki, namely the increased regeneration it should be giving him if it was complete with its master and had a seal that would process the matter in moments. Instead of healing instantly, the damage the youki caused to get the body used to it took days, sometimes weeks, to heal. However, as Naruto was an infant at the time and not an adult, his adaptability was at its peak, and his body slowly built up a resistance to the youki. At first there was no real problem with that, as the surges happened roughly every two months, giving Naruto enough time to heal before the next wave came. However as the years passed without Tsunami being any more resistant to the youki than at birth, the Kyūbi's chakra was losing patience and started sending more youki in shorter intervals. Naruto's body had eventually become unable to keep up with the increasing amount and slowly started breaking down, as the youki was still attacking his organs and its master still in slumber until it grew stronger, which had eventually damaged the lungs, leading to the bloody cough.

Still, Naruto's body had a high resistance to youki, and since there was no seal to keep it away from the master, it could integrate itself again to him and fulfill its purpose. For the youki, it was as if it had found utopia. A host in which it could rest, in which it could easily gain sustenance, and in which it was not bound to the host's will, but its master. Whatever the master wanted, if it meant helping the host, then it did so. So the youki decided in that moment to stop its existence as a scavenger and return to its master. As it felt the need to prevent its host's destruction thanks to its master. While most of the body was lined with internal chakra that would have been a bother, the hands were not. Coincidentally, this arms were also flooded in solutions of unknown origin, a threat to the future host's life. However, now that the solutions could be easily destroyed on a whim, the Kyūbi grew curious. It could be used as an advantage, the Human's memories show of the time it meet a member of the Kurama clan, they were useful in the use of Genjutsu, something that the Human loved, more than life itself. So instead of simply wiping out the solutions, the ones in the body and outside of the body were absorbed, it integrated the aspects of their DNA that made them capable of such feats, the Kyūbi restructured the Human's DNA giving it an enhancement. With its capabilities the host could create illusions that would rival that clan and maybe even surpass it. The Kyūbi felt pleased, it seem that everything was going according to its plan, and using a new flood of youki, it commanded it to heal the boys arms. The Human would practically worship him for now on, it thought.

* * *

Naruto groaned. His throat was bone-dry and he felt dizzy. He slowly pushed himself up and looked around. Where was he? Then he remembered. "Oh yeah, I found this room with the medicine."

His entire body ached. He cursed himself, despite the feeling that the words in his throat turned to sandpaper, while he beat his knuckles on his forehead. "Idiot! What stupid idiot would just mix unknown medicines together like that? You're behaving like Tsunami! What possessed you to do something so..." He froze. His gaze wandered to his knuckles. "No way." He whispered. He had been beating himself with BOTH hands!

_'Kyūbi, look at this!'_

**_'You better be grateful Human, had I not sent my chakra into you, you would have surely died.'_**

_'How'd you do it? You couldn't have had enough.'_

**_'I used the outside one, it took some time to get it to listen correctly of what I wanted, but it worked wonders, just like I expected my chakra to do so.'_**He sounded proud of himself at the end.

'Thanks, Kyūbi' it said nothing, going back to its slumber and reorganize the priorities of its long lost chakra. He flexed his arms a few times, and cried tears of joy when his arms obeyed, even if it felt a bit strange to do so after so long. But he immediately called himself to attention. Two times he had let himself be controlled by his emotions, and both had led to great amounts of pain. It was time to stop acting like a little kid, and start thinking like he had the past weeks, cold hard intelligence, nothing more.

His arm was healed. That was good. However, if he went and shouted that to the world, not only would that raise many questions, but it would also mean that all the people who had let him watch their training would stop doing so. Not that he had any plans of staying for very long, but if he kept his arm a secret, then the search-parties would be looking for a boy with crippled arms, not for one with two working arms. He could sit in a restaurant with slightly altered appearance, and they would ignore him as they saw him eating with his left arm and drink with his right. No, that his arm worked was information given out on a need-to-know-basis, and nobody needed to know. Also, it looked a bit different. The skin was a bit paler than before, and the nails were sharpened to short claws, similar to the ones of a fox.

Then he looked around. Everything was destroyed, only he looked clean of shards and dust. He was hungry. Thankfully he had grabbed his wallet before he had left the left the chamber and the tunnel, before trying to find the way he had come from. "Let's see, the monument is there. From the position of the faces, the market should be that way."

* * *

Twenty minutes after they left, a squad of ANBU appeared, looking around worried. "That youki has been here for years, it can't just evaporate from one minute to the next." One wearing an hawk-mask muttered.

Another, wearing a beaver-mask, looked at the third member, an owl-faced one. "Do you sense anything?"

Owl-mask shook his head. "There's no youki left, but the traces that it was here are too strong to get any other signal. There is no source of chakra or youki nearby, but the youki has been here so long that everything seems to emit residue. Even if an army of kages had stood right here ten seconds ago, I wouldn't be able to tell. I can hardly sense you over all the interference, and you're constantly emitting chakra."

The hawk-mask shook his head. "This is pointless. We're not going to find anything out right now. Let's return for now and leave the rest to search-parties."

Beaver-mask sighed. "Do you think the barrier will give any clues?"

"Not likely." Taka answered. "The youki-interference has always been a bother. If one gets into a one-mile radius of it, and the market is closer than that, all the guys from the barrier see is a big blur. Let's call it quits."

The others nodded, and a second later, they were gone. Fortunately it was a windy day, or they would have noticed some footprints leading out of a collapsed wall and towards the market.

* * *

Kushina was in the kitchen, making a late breakfast. It was nine in the morning, and she had returned from her border-patrol not even ten minutes ago, only to find Konoha in a state of chaos. The youki that was still lingering and attacking anything since the Kyūbi-attack had suddenly just disappeared right after she had left, and even now, three days later, nobody knew why. At first everyone believed Tsunami had done something, but that had not been the case. Poor Minato hadn't been home for a single second since that day, as the council held one meeting after the other, and this would likely go on all week. Although now finally some had gathered the courage to enter the 'Dead Zone', and came back reporting that the youki truly was gone. She herself would probably be called away again soon, but there should be enough time for breakfast. She looked up when she heard the door open.

* * *

Naruto sighed. He had seen Kushina's shoes, so he had to be polite, lest he be bugged even more. He had found out on the market that he had been out for three days. "I'm back!" He called.

Kushina's voice rang out of the kitchen, and Naruto, despite having no faith in his parents left, felt like he had been punched in the gut. "You were out? Anyways, breakfast will be ready in a minute, could you wake Tsunami?"

Naruto stood there, gaping in disbelief. He had been gone for three days, and they had not even noticed? **Mekura** had worn off ages ago! This was the straw that broke the camel's back. His face twisted in anger- He would be out of here this very day, one way or the other. They obviously didn't care about him, so he wouldn't force his presence on those who obviously didn't need it. "I'm not hungry." He called back, before heading up to his room, a short stop to inform Tsunami of the meal waiting downstairs, calming himself. There was no need to get angry. Anger was counterproductive, and wasted on people one didn't care about. He had no time for irrational anger. He had to pack.

Naruto had no way of knowing that both of his parents had been gone these last three days, that Kushina hadn't even been here half an hour and had believed him to be still lying in bed, that there had been nobody but Tsunami and other kids in the house and any adult in the vicinity had kept all their focus on them, as some of them didn't even know that the Hokage had a son.

As such, Naruto was determined to be out of Konoha before sunrise, unless it turned out he had to fine-tune his Genjutsu now that his arms worked. He already knew where he would go first.

* * *

This Jutsu are property of Thanatos. I do not take praise for them. Please head to his page to read the original story.

_Mekura_ (Blindness/Illiteracy/Ignorance)  
Rank: B  
Range: Short (0-5m), Middle (5-10m), Long (10m+)  
Type: Support  
This genjutsu was invented by Naruto. While most genjutsu create hallucinations or, if complex enough, an entire fake world, this one does the opposite. The victim still sees the world as it really is, which means even someone with photographic memory would not be able to tell he was in a genjutsu because some absolutely minor detail is wrong, but instead, all traces that indicate the presence of something, generally the user. This includes not only his body, but also things like sounds he makes, any smell he emits, minor physical contact, up to a certain point things he moves, for example doors, and even the presence a experienced shinobi can instinctively detect. However, if the user were to do something that cannot be easily ignored, for example attacking the victim or smashing or stealing something precious to the victim, the genjutsu would not cover that, and the victim would immediately realize something was wrong, although the genjutsu would not automatically cancel itself. If multiple victims are trapped, the only one who would notice in the case of an attack would be the target of the attack, although the others would notice if the target dropped dead. Like with any normal genjutsu, disrupting one's chakra-flow or a loss of conscience will end it, although like many other subtle ones, it will not be dispelled when the victim is asleep. This genjutsu will become one of the ones most often used by Naruto.

* * *

** So that's it. I have there two of Thanatos chapters mixed with info of my own and ideas that I want to throw out. Sorry about the end, honestly even I became a little confused with Thanatos explanation and having to change a few things since Naruto had the Kyūbi inside of him and both hands were crippled. I don't know how good I did so, but I hope it pleases you. I don't have a beta so I would need one to do from an objective point of view. If anybody know of anyone that does a good job. PM me their names and jobs they've done. I'll ask the writers they've helped and try to choose someone to help. It was exhausting. In the end for some reason i've got higher word count in here that i do in my WORD chapter save. i dont know what happened...**

**I think that from the next chapter onward I'll get to go in a new direction, as I wanted from the beginning and can distance myself from Thanatos story. Well then, REVIEW!**


	4. The Discoveries of a, now not, Family

To Free the Bijū Ch. 4

This story is based on the Fanfiction story 'God of Illusion, Wielder of the Devil's Arm' by Thanathos. If you wish to read his story, I recommend it, stop by his page and read it. He has already given me permission as long as I give him his much needed credit. I'm grateful to him for giving me a chance. Well, I by no means am forgetting my other story 'The Jinchūriki of Ten-Tails, but I recently saw the last movie and with another idea I had in my mind I proposed myself to invent this story. (Except for the parts that are Thanatos')

Reviews:

- Aetemus, **the Kyūbi knew the signal it could launch would gather the youki from the surrounding area, it didn't do it because after it touched its master it dissipated, and return to the underground. the reason why was that it only recognized that its master was there, it couldn't have known that Kyūbi needed it. Once Kyūbi realized where they were, he sought out the highest form of concentration possible, coincidently it was in the underground lab. Naruto does the experiment and as he is dying Kyūbi know has the ability to send its signal via the wounds (remember the youki was injected into Naruto, his seal isn't made to move the chakra around and outside his body) so he sends the signal via the wound, the remaining chakra comes, helps out and Kyūbi infuses it to his own. part of the reason stated was that since it was alone for so long, its predetermined 'mission' ('self-preservation until reuniting with the main-body is possible) wasn't done because technically Kyūbi didn't have his chakra, therefore he was 'hollow' of the main body. Once the youki entered the system Kyūbi could control it and set out to save Naruto and give him a different genetic make-up**.

- Mystolon, **You have to understand that this is from Naruto's point of view as well as his parents that have Tsunami in such high regards. While it is true that Naruto has higher chakra levels than Kakashi, he does not have the control. you must have noticed. Naruto doesn't learn jack shit in the anime of jutsu. Jiraiya was supposed to train him to become able to defeat Akatsuki... he didn't give him a wider repertoire of jutsu, he didn't give him a fighting style, and his chakra control was the same as always. Naruto can only do his wide range of Rasengan attacks, the shadow clone and transformation. Heck I've never seen him do the body flicker jutsu. That's the anime. Here tsunami has her parents to learn to do different jutsu, high caliber ones in fact, and her chakra control is the same as anime Naruto. He has a lower number of tries with jutsu because they trained more his sister than him, therefore she is 'better' than him. And do go dissing on Genjutsu! You'll see what I have in mind.**

-star445 ( It kinda sucks that Naruto is only using taijutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu, and genjutsu because he cannot use ninjutsu in a battle against an strong opponent and genjutsu won't work that well.) **(ノ****ಠ****益****ಠ****)ノ** **You know People really have a one track mind if they think that for a second. I mean no offense, but did you read what you just wrote? (It kinda sucks that Naruto is only using taijutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu, and genjutsu because he cannot use Ninjutsu…. Dude or dudette what the fuck! There are plenty of people in the anime/manga that don't use Ninjutsu and kick ass. The Hyūga's, Lee, Tenten, Maito Gai, Tsunade ( her strength is an explosion of chakra, no Ninjutsu) Gaara used only his sand. Kankurō his puppets, the samurai, and so on. Now, read** **your comment again. Read mine. Enough said. Second if people think I'm gonna make Naruto weak ass because he didn't show enough Genjutsu or abilities then they haven't understand the intro. Those three chapters are his reason for being how he is. You saw, you read. A lot of negligence, mistakes, errors and resentment and he left. I won't have him return or try to help Konoha. He doesn't have precious people there, or a reason to do so. I told you in the beginning, he will be an evil Naruto, like Menma from Bonds of Shinobi. Which coincidently made me write this story… there I vented. Sorry if some people don't like it. There are other good stories out there that might interest you because this one doesn't go how you wished. Nothing goes how you wish. That's life. Now I really hope this is my last vent for some time. At least for 10-15 more chapters. I will see this true to the end, whether people like it or not.**

So, onwards with the show.

"Hi" means talking

'_Hi' _means thinking

**_Hi means demonic/out worldly voices or thoughts_**

**HI means jutsu**

**(HI) means jutsu translation**

**Disclaimer: That's what I get for reading the commentaries before writing.**

* * *

As much as Naruto wanted to leave immediately, he found that a short wait was necessary. He needed materials: food, clothes, seals, ink, kunai, scrolls, his painting set, …and heirlooms, as much as he hate to admit it, his par- the Namikaze and Uzumaki had some valuable artifacts. Oh he wouldn't take the important stuff, the one they would notice immediately, no he would take the older ones. The ones that marked an Uzumaki. Kushina had told him at one time, when she actually noticed him, that his great-grandfather had a spectacular sword. Not a sentient sword. Not one with a special ability. No this sword had gone through thick and thin with his great-grandfather. Supposedly the sword was considered one of the first forged by the son of and Uzumaki and a blacksmith from the Land of Iron. The man took double the time to finish it, because for some reason the material was harder to define than most. It helped him against opponents many times stronger than him, it was said that with each battle he became exponentially stronger, as did his chakra for reasons yet unknown. With his age, that could only come from an Uzumaki, he had fought against the destruction of Uzushiogakure and when he noticed what would be the conclusion he gave it to Kushina as she left. She never touched it, saying that such memento wasn't yet a force she thought to be worthy of handling.

With it, he would also take Jutsu scrolls that Kushina usually left around. She would take time between missions to read and reread the scrolls to compare how she used them and what could be gain if she did so in a different way. Her notes and scribbles all around the parchment. Sadly Minato did not have a scroll for the **Rasengan**. Supposedly it was best practiced and shown to whomever it would be teached and the practices to do so. Minato had shown Tsunami the **Rasengan** but her control at the moment was fairly weak and told her to wait until a few weeks. Ironically had they listen to him, she would have done so in record time.

And something was wrong with his Genjutsu. His control was slightly off, meaning that he would have to go to the pond in the back of the garden and spend almost at least two hours to regain his abilities of water-walking, but his Genjutsu was odd in a new way. It wasn't that he was unable to cast them, quite the opposite. The problem was that he couldn't really control them anymore. He could no longer calculate if a **Mekura** lasted five minutes or two weeks, if it did disappear. It felt as if all the requirements he had worked with, how much chakra is needed to make it last, how to dose it, had suddenly changed. To use a simple comparison, he had all the right ingredients, but the concentrations were all wrong, resulting in screwed up cooking.

'Oi! Kyūbi! What the heck happened to me?'

**'What could you possibly mean Human?' he asked with a sneer.**

'My chakra, my Genjutsu, my control! It's changed!'

**'Oh, that!' he said as if he remember something unimportant. 'It's part of the procedure I did to you in that underground lab. It's nothing much really.'**

'What did you do?!'

**'Relax Human, first off it should be simple for you and they are all connected to me. I told you earlier on that I was syphoning your chakra. Now that I have my own, your own reserves are back to how they should be. In fact, because I continued to strain them you might have 1.5 or almost double of what you a week ago had, now that I'm not using them. You should be glad Human; with this you have more chakra for more jutsu and more abilities. Besides with that there were a few changes… that you might find useful…'**

'Kyūbi!' His face was matching his hair in anger.

**'Bah, as if you scare me Human. Remember our deal. Now look at your arms, preferably at your biceps.' **

Naruto was not finishing the conversation that way, Kyūbi would get scolding later own. He looked at his arms and took off his shirt. To say he was surprised was an understatement. To say he was shock was even more. He was simply stupefied. "What the heck?" there in his arms, he could see it. He could flex it. It was his, it was the only explanation. His biceps, all the way from his proximal biceps tendon in his shoulders all the way down to distal biceps tendon, the muscle mass had grown. Contrasting both his forearms and finger, it was like having the handle of a machete and eating knives at his fingers. They looked huge, not part of his kid body. 'What the fuck?!' he could picture the Kyūbi having an amused grin on his face. 'What is this?'

**'That! Is my chakra.'**

**'**W-What?'

The Kyūbi sighed. **'Pitiful Human and you call yourself intelligent.'** Naruto almost shouted 'Hey!' before remembering where he was. **'Until you can attain a level of prowess in Fūinjutsu and change the seal, the only place I could store my chakra for easy access was your biceps. With no chakra running through it when you were injured, and I can't store it in me, as the seal doesn't let me, I had to place it there so I could use it or sustain myself without worries. Luckily for you, because your sister had pumped so much chakra into you before, you were able to place it there without problems. That isn't to say, that you can use it whenever you wish, it will only respond to me and my desires. The commands I gave it are my own and you do not need to learn them, except for a fact.' **

Naruto had visibly cooled off by now. 'What is it?'

**'Nothing that will hurt you or endanger me. One order I gave was that when you used those Genjutsu of yours, a little speck, something miniscule to me, you won't feel it and I won't lose sleep over it, will pass over to your chakra coils and ****_enhance_**** said illusions. Add that to the fact that you are no longer just an Uzumaki-Namikaze and your set.'** He yawned at the end.

'Oh when you put it that way I- WAIT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN I AIN'T AN UZUMAKI-NAMIKAZE ANYMORE?'

**'Oh yeah, I changed your genetic make-up. That stuff you rubbed on yourself was DNA from the Kurama clan. Think of it like this. Your mother got pregnant with not just your fathers semen, but with a man from the Kurama clan as well. Or that you have some Kurama blood on you now.'**

'Kyūbi-baka, don't say that kind of stuff! I'm still a child!'

'The Kyūbi huffed.** 'Whatever' **And it went back to sleep.

* * *

While this would not do, it had good unintended side-effects. As mentioned, the Genjutsu were a lot more potent than before as shown when he placed one on a group of Hyūgas that made them believe they were seeing every shade of pink and it took them four tries to break it. It cost less, now that he had more chakra, but with his quick control training that morning he had it back.

"If I focus on **Mekura** and other subtle ones, leaving them with a **SHADOW CLONE,** I should get them under control by evening, and be out of here by sunrise. I can test the others later, there's always a bandit somewhere." Naruto told himself.

And so he did.

* * *

He finally had it all, for some reason he didn't know the Shinobi were in an uproar and highly disorganized. He wanted to go one last time to the library to copy a few Genjutsu that were original to Konoha, but with such disarray, he actually got into the Forbidden Section. The one that only Elite Chūnin with the capabilities, Jōnin, ANBU, and everyone else with a certain level of clearance could only get to. He actually found a few Jutsu that were made by the Nidaime Hokage, and were high level ones at that. Maybe he could take them_? 'It's only their fault that they didn't guard this place well.' _He thought. Using a sealing scroll he took them all and when back to his house, well tomorrow he wouldn't be able to call it that. A few **Mekura **here and there and he returned to his room without problems.

* * *

He had everything he needed, as his family was asleep and under **Mekura** that should last until tomorrow afternoon, so there was no problem on that front. The gates of Konoha would be closed, but Naruto had found out that in an hour, a shipment of goods would leave Konoha, meaning that he had a window of opportunity for his escape. All that kept him here, second thoughts were surprisingly not it, was the question if he should leave a message.

He didn't want to write a letter in which he expressed his anger, as that would only make the whole thing look like the thoughtless action of an upset child, and destroy the significance and meaning of his decision to leave. However, he didn't want to leave nothing behind and be considered kidnapped, as that would not only put anyone he would meet at risk of being accused of kidnapping, but it would make him look weak, not to mention that if he didn't leave a message, nobody would even consider that he left of his own will.

He needed something to deliver a message. It needed to be clear, short, stylish, and most of all, obvious. The best message was useless if nobody noticed it.

An idea sparked in his mind. The place where he learn of his, now not, parents lies. Where he learned first-hand how the world truly worked for those that were given attention and emphasis. A few seals would do the trick. He might have never done a prank, but let it be known that Naruto had the works of a prankster as was in his blood.

* * *

Leaving had proven easier than Naruto had originally feared. A quick **Mekura** to the guards who were arguing with a merchant about something, probably taxes, a little bit of sneaking, crawling under the cart to get through the barely-opened gates, and then carefully sneaking away.

Of course he couldn't have known that the reason it was so easy was that in his training to relearn his Genjutsu, some of his guinea-pigs just so happened to be the squad that was responsible for watching over the barrier that evening.

After a while, Naruto paused. It was odd. Now that he was so far away from Konoha that it could no longer be seen through the trees, he felt different. A bit of regret was there, but not much. What had truly changed was that for the first time ever, Naruto felt free.

Here, away from the civilization that he had known and detested most of his life, away from their looks, their expectations, their pity, from those that looked down on him, never seeing just who he was and what he could do, Naruto felt his heart soar. Freedom, sweet, sweet freedom. He understood why people were willing to fight and die for this feeling.

Still, now was not the time to get lost in thought. **Mekura** would wear off tomorrow, and in three days with the correct conditions, his parents should receive his message, and then send out forces. In a way, it was a last test for his parents. **Mekura** would wear off tomorrow afternoon, and the day after, it would rain in the evening. If they hadn't sent out anyone by then, it would be impossible to find him.

Also, in four days of civilian pace, he would reach his destination. He had the improved **Henge** up, to ensure that nobody that wasn't looking for him would find him by coincidence, just in case some Shinobi returned to Konoha using his route. Where he was going?

Well, Suna was an allied nation, meaning that this would be one of the places he would avoid in the near future. Maybe after things settled down a bit, but not yet.

Small nations like Taki and Kusa were on his list, but they too were allied with Konoha and would keep an eye out for him the first few months. Ame probably wouldn't care about Konoha, but Naruto had no intention of celebrating his freedom by walking into a dictatorship.

Kumo and Kiri were just too far away, he'd be caught on the road if Konoha checked.

Iwa was good, as who would expect the son of the Yondaime to travel there of all places, but if he could come up with the idea of hiding in a territory where one didn't initially look for him, then so could the Nara. Somebody would check the vicinity of Iwa, if only to make sure that he hadn't hidden behind the border to wait for them to give up.

And while there were many other countries that had much more usefulness for him, right now he wanted a place that had the peace he needed to continue his studies on Kyūbi's seal, had an area where he could train his Suiton Jutsu without problems, and had little-to-no reliance with Shinobi.

Kyūbi as if reading his mind questioned_. __**'Is there really such a place?'**_

' Of course, Kyūbi-sama.' This one was part of their deal. Naruto agreed without a care. He didn't care what he called him, he just did to humor and appease the damn ego the furball had. 'Remember one of the most important things one looks for in his travels is: Locations, locations, locations.'

**_'Really that place is your 'location' to answer your pleas?' _*****huff*****_ 'You better know what you are doing.'_**

* * *

The sudden disappearance of the Youki that had plagued Konoha for years, reminding them of what they had lost, had caused a panic. Everyone knew by now that youki didn't just vanish, so if it was gone, that could not be good. Was it just hiding, waiting until a large number of people were in its grasp before returning and killing them all? Had it wandered to different sectors of Konoha, where nobody was expecting it, in search of more prey?

As Hokage, it was Minato's duty to ease the worries of his people, and so from council-meetings over public speeches to personally joining the search-teams and equipping them with reverse-summon seals that they could use should they be attacked by the Youki, or simply trapped under debris of crumbling buildings. The Youki had weakened all structures and foundations, so collapses and, in the sewers, cave-ins where nothing unusual.

Kushina wanted to show her support of her husband and joined the search-squads, of course equipped with one of Minato's seals. She was the first that entered a building, after it had been declared structurally safe enough to enter, and was the first to enter the sewers, knowing that nothing was flowing through them, as that section of the sewers had been walled off to prevent the youki from moving that way.

They had parked Tsunami with the Yamanaka, to make sure she stayed out of trouble and wasn't lonely. Sadly, when they departed, both had still been under Naruto's **Mekura**, which told them to ignore anything about Naruto, including his absence. By the time it wore off, both had too much work and pressure on them to spare either of their children a thought.

Almost a week would pass before the Namikaze-family would rejoin at their home. And that was too late.

* * *

Naruto looked up at the sky. The first drops had fallen a while ago, and now heaven had opened all floodgates. Naruto stood there, letting the rain wash over him, washing away the last connection to his family.

Naruto sighed and turned around. It was done. The last bridge was burned, the last chance given and wasted. He was officially alone, an orphan with no family.

Without looking back even once, he continued on his path, wherever it may lead him. His destination was still half a day's journey away, and he needed someone to let him in, not that it would be too hard, seeing that he was quickly getting used to the new concentrations of chakra needed for his Genjutsu. Naruto walked.

* * *

A week had passed, and the Namikaze-family could finally reunite. Tsunami had stayed with different clans throughout the week and hadn't set foot in the house since then. Kushina and Minato only went to and from their bed and back to work. Neither passed the conditions to activate Naruto's seal. That is until today.

The entire village had been searched, every sensor had been on duty 24/7, and Konoha could finally be labeled safe. Not only that, but now they were finally able to make use of those sectors of the village that had been unusable in the past. All in all, Konoha had gained more ground on which it could build, helping the village hidden in the leaves to flourish even more.

Kushina was home first, and immediately started preparing a meal for the family, namely a huge pot of ramen.

Minato came next, completely exhausted from getting perhaps twelve hours of sleep during the entire week.

And finally, Tsunami was brought back from an Akimichi by a random member of the clan, who left after making sure that the girl had actually gone through the door of the compound.

Initially neither parent was too worried with Naruto, knowing that the boy usually had some watchers, and even in the cases where he gave them the slip for a while, he didn't really do anything worrying, mostly just reading, meditating near a pond, and/or watching Shinobi train. Still, when Kushina entered the kitchen seeing only two people sitting there, she frowned. She knew that Naruto regularly skipped lunch, but she felt that this day, they should all be together.

"Does either of you know where Naruto is?" She asked.

"Out?" Tsunami guessed, not really caring. The smell of ramen was much more important than her stupid brother, after all. Not to mention that she had played with her friends until late in the evening, and was woken up very early, only to play more. She was tired.

But now Minato frowned. "Kushina, do you remember who we asked to care for him while we were away? I know that we were talking about him the night before, but what happened next?"

Kushina considered it, racking her memory but coming up blank, when she noticed something. "Minato, is Naruto's chair humming and glowing?"

Indeed, the old chair was giving off pulses of light, as if trying to get attention.

"Tsunami, come here." He drew a few seals around her, gave her a slip of paper, and looked her in the eyes. "I'm going to activate a barrier around you. What I just gave you was the key to release it. If something happens, you wait until it's safe, and then you run and get help, do you understand?"

Tsunami nodded, now scared by the seriousness in his voice. Minato activated the seal, encasing Tsunami in an azure orb that would stop just about anything. After knowing she was safe, he carefully stepped next to his wife.

It seemed unlikely that someone had entered, he had two arrays to stop that, but it never hurt to be careful. Using his limited abilities as a sensor, Minato tried to see if anything was unusual. He could sense his arrays all over the house, his wife, the barrier with his daughter in it, and, faintly, the chair... along with a few around the house giving the same power. There was a small amount of chakra in it, but it was not enough for anything dangerous. If there was an explosive-seal on it, then it would only explode the chair, maybe send pieces in their directions.

Deeming it fairly safe, Minato pulled out a kunai and tapped the frame with it, Kushina looking over his shoulder.

Low and behold, as he expected the chair blew of its legs, the seat and back in a short second. Both covered their faces from the incoming debris. They looked at each other unsure, before the same explosion came from different parts of the house and outside. Both quickly nodded to each other and told Tsunami to stay put while they checked the house. Indeed at every part of the house that had an object that belonged exclusively to Naruto was blown off, toothbrush, toys, towel, even his room, having the loudest explosion, was also part of it.

"What the?" Minato muttered. Now that it was over he returned to the kitchen where he was surprised to see that the chair that had been blown had miraculously reform itself, he saw a small seal, a fairly basic one that allowed the user to save a simple Genjutsu and play it. It had been all the rage a few years ago, when everyone used the seal on chests, wallets and other objects. But how did it get here? He looked at his wife.

"Did Naruto do this?" She asked.

Minato shrugged. "That seems the only explanation. He wouldn't tip off the arrays, and would not be recorded as an intruder. But there has to be someone helping him. There's no way that he could have enough knowledge of Fūinjutsu and Genjutsu to make this seal. It's simple, yes, but one must at least know what they're doing to craft this."

Kushina gave him a glance. "Minato, you have the habit of leaving things lying around. Is there ANY chance that Naruto may have learned something out of scrolls that you didn't put back into their shelves?"

Minato frowned, but nodded. "It's possible, but that alone would not... oh."

Kushina looked at him. "Oh? What do you mean oh?"

Minato scratched his head. "I gave Naruto the permission to browse the library, and he may have learned something there."

Kushina blinked. "I see. In any case, we should find Naruto, and ask him what this is supposed to mean. Look, he tore up half the house!"

Tsunami, after deeming it safe, had disarmed the barrier. She didn't really care about what was going on, she wanted her ramen! "Who cares about Nii-san's stuff? It's not like he's being here all the time."

Kushina turned around, her mother-senses giving off a bad vibe. "What do you mean he hasn't been here?"

Tsunami slapped her hands on her mouth, realizing that she had just made a mistake. "Nothing mom, can we eat?"

But Kushina was not stupid. "Tsunami Uzumaki-Namikaze, do not lie to me. Look me in the eyes young lady, and tell me exactly what you meant when you said nii-san hasn't been here? Since when?"

Tsunami squirmed looking everywhere but her mother, until she finally blurted out "Ihaven'tseenhimsincehecalledmeforbreakfestaweekag o!"

Kushina blinked. "Again, slower."

Tsunami bit her lip. "I haven't seen him since he called me for breakfast a week ago. Even then he was gone for three days while you were on that border patrol and he arrived that morning."

Kushina stared at her. While the crime was really petty, she didn't like being lied to and to be hidden things, much less by her own daughter and son. She remembered the day, and Naruto's irritated voice, she thought he just had a hard morning, or something had happened. She was going o ask him when she returned from the search. "So you were lying to us? When I asked you how you and your brother spent the time, he wasn't there? You left your brother alone?"

Tsunami looked at the floor. She mumbled something that could, with much imagination, be translated to "Yes mom."

Minato looked at her. " Tsunami, you know that we don't like lies. I think you should spend the day in your room, thinking about what you did. You will be skipping meal time today."

Tsunami stared in horror. "What about the ramen? Please daddy, not the ramen!" She begged, but her father would not be moved.

"What punishment would this be if we gave you ramen? Of course you're not getting any ramen, that's part of your punishment. Now, are there any other things you'd like to tell us about? Some other misconceptions, or lies, that you didn't correct us on?"

Tsunami frowned, folded her arms in front of her chest, and stubbornly turned her head away. "I'm not telling!"

Minato and Kushina exchanged glances. Tsunami's reply had basically been a confession that there were other things, but right now, they had a different priority.

"In any case, we should find Naruto. I'm going to ask the guys watching the barrier for help." Minato told his wife, before vanishing in a yellow flash.

Kushina took Tsunami upstairs to her room and activated the seals to keep her inside. As she did, she realized that this was the first time she had done so with Tsunami, while she must have done it dozens of times with Naruto. Considering that she was doing to punish Tsunami for lying and hiding Naruto's routine disappearances, she started to wonder if there had been times when she had punished Naruto for something his sister had done and how many secrets had they kept from her?

Afterwards she herself started to look for her son. The first step when looking for someone was to ask friends and associates, so Kushina decided to do the same. It was only then that she really realized an anomaly in Naruto's behavior. He had been watched ever since his accident, and while he had occasionally slipped away, those moments were few, and there usually was some witness that could dimly remember seeing him on the training-grounds, the library, or just strolling through town. But in all the time he was observed, there was not a single time where Naruto had sought the company of someone his age, or any human contact beyond observing Shinobi train. She had to ask herself why her son acted that way, being so solitary. Even if the injury had put him in a bad mood, at least one of his friends should have at least tried to talk to him. Was it possible that Naruto didn't have any friends among his peers?

* * *

"What do you mean he may not be in the village?" Minato demanded.

While the barrier was more for detecting intruders and had a few faults, it could be used to look for a certain signature, if it was registered. Naruto's chakra-signature was registered, so he should have shown up as a red spot on the map, but it had stayed blank. The current watcher had stated that this could mean two things. Either Naruto was dead, a rather unlikely scenario, as residue in the coils should be enough to detect a corpse as long as he was fresher than two weeks, or he had simply left the territory the barrier encased. Needless to say, Minato had not taken the information well.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but that is really all I can say. He does not show up on the map, so either he's dead, in an area that blocks the sensors, like a compound, or he is not in the village."

Minato nodded. "I see. Thank you for the advice; I'll check the compounds that may be the one in question." He **Hiraishined** away.

Appearing in front of the Hokage's tower, he looked around, trying to distinguish the one Naruto would most likely be in. 'Let's see, what child Naruto spends the most time with?'

Pondering that, Minato realized that he had never seen Naruto spend time with any child. Naruto's rhythm of life seemed similar to that of a Shinobi who lost those that he cherished, going through the motions of living without really opening to anyone. Kakashi would be a good example for this, although the man did spend some time with him, the last living person that he could relate with. His teammates were gone, Obito dead, Rin dead, so Minato was really the only thing that kept Kakashi from completely cutting ties with the world. And even with Minato present, Kakashi spent most of his time alone.

While such a behavior was not too uncommon for old men and veterans, it was not something that Naruto as a child should have.

As he didn't know who Naruto may play with, he decided to start with the Aburame, and work his way through other the clans if Naruto wasn't there.

* * *

Kushina was getting desperate. She had gone through Tsunami's list of friends, but nobody had seen her boy, or even knew anyone who was his friend. If children don't know anyone who is a friend of their best friend's twin brother, then that is sending a very worrying message. She was currently in the Hyūga compound, talking to the notoriously shy Hinata.

"I-I-I'm sorry I c-can't help you, K-K-Kushina-san, b-but I didn't see N-N-N-Naruto-san."

Kushina felt desperate. "And you really don't know anyone who spends time with Naruto? Nobody?"

Hinata shook her head.

Kushina pulled on her hair. "ARGH! It's like my son doesn't have a single friend!" She called out. Hinata was suddenly very interested in her feet. Kushina paused. "Hinata, does Naruto have friends?"

Hinata was trying to stare a hole into the floor. She seemed to be struggling with herself. Kushina put her arms on the girl's shoulders and went down on one knee so that they were at the same eye-level. "Hinata, please. Naruto's gone. If you know anything..."

Hinata couldn't meet her eyes, but she slowly shook her head. Kushina's head sagged in disappointment, until she heard Hinata's faint voice. "N-no, Naruto-san doesn't h-have a-a-any f-friends."

Kushina stared at her. "Hinata, do you know why?"

Hinata looked like she wanted to be anywhere, just not here. She really didn't want to get Tsunami in trouble, but she was a horrible liar.

"Hinata?"

Hinata bit her lip. "W-well, I k-know how it s-started." She finally admitted.

Kushina looked at her. "Really? How?"

Hinata gulped. "W-well, it s-started really harmless..."

And so Kushina learned of the birthday-party and of Tsunami's behavior. Needless to say, Kushina was shocked to hear of such behavior from the daughter she had believed as innocent as a kitten, especially since she had to this day not lifted the 'ban' she had placed on anyone who played with Naruto, confirming that it was still active whenever asked. That was beginning to worry Kushina. Together with a few other hints that Hinata had dropped, the pieces of the puzzle seemed to match to form a picture that she didn't like. It looked like Tsunami had started to use her brother as a scapegoat. But maybe she was overthinking things.

* * *

Minato had gone through all compounds that may have blocked the scan, only to find nothing and in many cases hear that his wife had been there first. So he returned to asking the barrier-crew if Naruto had returned, only to hear that this was not the case. So after he reunited with his wife, they decided to ask Kakashi for advice, as he was a tracker and should be able to find him fairly easily. Kakashi obeyed the call of his old sensei, and had promptly arrived, for a change not late.

"So you want me to find your son." Kakashi summarized after hearing the rather distraught parents out. "That shouldn't be too difficult. I know that he spends his time inside the village, so he shouldn't have much experience traveling. When was the last time you saw him?"

Minato and Kushina exchanged a baffled look, before Minato took the initiative. "I'm not sure about Kushina, but I haven't seen anyone not involved in the youki-hunt in a week."

Kushina nodded. "I was also involved in that, the last time I saw Naruto was before the sweep started."

Now Kakashi's brow twitched, once. "You're telling me that he may have a week's head-start? The boy knows how to water-walk, so he can do Shinobi-travel, which means he could be practically anywhere by now! And even if he traveled the civilian way, he could still already be well out of Hi no Kuni. Not to mention that we had heavy rain a few days ago, so if he left before that, then I'm afraid there is nobody who would be able to track him. All footprints are gone, and the rain will have washed away every scent. I'll try to get a trace, but if he left before the rain, then I'm afraid there's nothing I can do."

Kushina looked downcast, but still nodded. "Please do."

Kakashi nodded and headed out.

He had barely left, when another visitor entered. Minato managed a tired smile. "Hello sensei."

Jiraiya nodded in greeting. "So, where is this message that your son may have left?"

Minato showed him the chair. Jiraiya charged it with chakra, and the scene replayed itself. Jiraiya charged it again, taking the scene in again.

Finally, Kushina couldn't stand the silence any longer. "When that happened everything that was his was blown off. What do you make of it?"

Jiraiya scratched his head. "Well, if it is from Naruto, then the message is pretty clear. He is telling you that he no longer considers himself a part of the family, and left."

Minato shook his head. "But why would he do that?"

Jiraiya gave him an almost apologetic look. "I'm not in his head, but I think I can guess part of the reason. Look closely at the chair, heck look at everything his, what's left of it…"

Minato looked closely at the Genjutsu, he replayed it a few times before he noticed it. When looked in slow motion everything was destroyed save for the armchairs, those were left for last, before they too were destroyed. When the Genjutsu started again the armchairs were the first thing to be remade. 'Armchairs… what's left of it… first and last…' he repeated many times in his mind before it clicked. . "Oh god. Kami have mercy, you think he found out about his arms?"

Jiraiya nodded. "It would make sense, and it is the only explanation why the Genjutsu starts and finishes that way at those particular spots. That's too much of a coincident to ignore. Either somebody else let it slip, or he overheard you talking about it, unless either of you told him?" He finished with a questioning look.

Both parents shook their heads, then Kushina clapped her hands in front of her mouth. "Oh no!" She gasped. "We talked about his arms just before I left for the border-patrol, remember?"

Minato's eyes widened as he remembered what he had said back then. Even if it was only black humor, if Naruto had somehow heard that part...

His pondering was interrupted by a number of seals going off, alerting him to a problem in Tsunami's room. His head snapped up. "Something's wrong with Tsunami!" He called out.

Jiraiya and Kushina immediately jumped up and ran to Tsunami's room, Minato leading the small stampede.

* * *

Tsunami had spent the day in a rage, throwing stuff around. She was never sent to her room, and she definitely wasn't denied ramen! That stuff happened to her brother, not her!

Eventually she had laid down in her bed, exhausted from breaking nearly everything in her room and the bathroom that wasn't sealed unbreakable. She wanted to sleep off the hunger when it started. Images of her, what she did to him, how he saw her in his eyes, how he felt, they seemed like a film, repeating and repeating, until she couldn't take it anymore and jumped off the bed. They stopped. None of the images came to her mind. All from her point of view. She touched back the bed when the images came back and like she was bit by a viper, she took off her hand.

That was when the pain started. It started as a small burning, and she instinctively stood up to go to her brother. It was only then when she realized two things. One, that she could not leave her room, and two, her brother was not here, so even if she got out, it would do her no good.

The burning got more intense, and she barely managed to reach the toilet before all that was in her stomach stormed out the way it came in. she heaved again and again, even after she had thrown up everything that was in her stomach, and only tasted the bile on her tongue. However, it didn't get better.

Her lungs were burning, millions of freezing-cold needles were rammed into her skin while said skin was being burned at the same time. Everything seemed to tighten, her joints felt like they were bending in the wrong direction, her blood was boiling in her veins, burning all tissue it came in contact with. Her internals were melting, her ears were popping under pressure, and two spinning drills were slowly being forced into her eyes. Tsunami had never been in such pain before; she had never even known such pain _existed_. She could not even scream, the pain was just too much. All she could do was whimper. She fell to the floor. A scrape on her knees, enough to draw blood.

The door flew open, and shadowy figures entered. "Tsunami? TSUNAMI! What's wrong with her?" That was her mother.

"I don't know!" That was her father. A hand touched her, and she latched onto it, just wanting the pain to stop.

"ARGH?" That was Jiraiya-jiichan. The hand was pulled away, and Tsunami whimpered again.

"It hurts. Get Naru-nii." She stammered. "He makes it all better. Need Naru-nii."

"Jiraiya, what's wrong?" Her mother.

"Hurts...Naru-nii..." She muttered, then, finally, everything turned black. A small explosion of the Kyūbi's chakra left her, most centered on her lower legs.

* * *

Jiraiya stared at his arm, which had the imprint of two small hands glowing in an angry red. He looked at Tsunami. "Minato, I think it's a surge."

Minato stared at him. "A surge? But she's been a Jinchūriki since birth! She shouldn't even feel them by now!"

Kushina understood much about Jinchūriki, she had eyes. She gasped. "Jiraiya, your arm!"

Jiraiya lifted it up. "It hurts pretty badly, I can tell you that much. I think Tsunami tried to channel the youki into me."

Minato gaped at him. "That's impossible! You're not a Jinchūriki; your body can't handle youki."

The older man looked at his arm. "Yes, I think we can see that."

Minato stared, at Tsunami, at Jiraiya's arm, then again at his daughter. "Now that you mention it, I never noticed any surge-pain even when she was a baby. But that's impossible. For her to feel it even now, she'd have to have channeled practically every surge into someone else. I think someone would have told us if something like that happened."

Jiraiya frowned. "What did Tsunami say before she fainted? 'Get Naru-nii, he makes it all better'?"

Minato's jaw dropped. "You think she..."

The toad-sage nodded grimly. "Yes, I do."

Kushina looked at both of them. "Can someone explain to me what's going on? What's wrong with Tsunami?"

Minato sighed wearily. "Nothing's wrong with her Kushina. Jiraiya thinks, and I agree, that Tsunami is going through a for Jinchūriki completely normal thing known as a surge as you did. You probably don't remember being so young. That basically means that the bijū, in our case Kyūbi's chakra, floods Tsunami's coils, and by extension her entire body, with youki. Don't worry Kushina, it's harmless. It happens to get the body used to the youki, so that in a situation where she has to call upon it, it won't immediately damage her body. The Jinchūriki normally only feels the first few surges, before the resistance against youki is high enough to ignore it. The first surge is the worst, and it only gets better from there."

Kushina pointed at her daughter, who, even in unconsciousness, was writhing in agony. She remembered a bit from her own childhood. "This never happened before!"

Minato gulped. "Well, Jiraiya had a theory..." He paused when he caught his old teacher giving him the evil eye "...and I agree," He hastily added "that this is probably the first surge Tsunami has ever really gone through."

"Wait, I thought that happened as soon as the bijū settled? Tsunami has been a Jinchūriki since birth!"

Minato looked away. "Normally yes, but Jir... we suspect that Tsunami 's case is a little different."

Jiraiya took over. "She tried to pump the youki into me when I touched her, and before she fainted she asked for her brother, since he 'made it all better'. We think..."

But Kushina had connected the dots herself, and remembered what Naruto had told her every time Tsunami was in his bed. _It hurts._ "No... You think she pumped the youki into Naruto?" She was deathly pale, and tears welled up in her eyes when she remembered dismissing and scolding him every time he tried to tell her.

Minato nodded. "It seems the most logical explanation."

Now Jiraiya spoke up. "It would also be one more reason why he up and left. Before today, when was the last time Tsunami was in his bed?"

Kushina frowned through her tears. "A few weeks ago. A month?"

Minato shook his head. "No, the seals I placed around the house also look who's in what room. Tsunami was in Naruto's room little over a week ago."

Jiraiya nodded his head. "I thought so. A surge is only supposed to happen roughly every two months. It looks like Kyuubi's chakra is getting impatient because there is no progress, and shortening the intervals, probably while increasing the amount of youki. Like with its sensory memory from the Kyūbi it remembered that its host needed to do this. Maybe it was getting dangerous to keep doing it until an older age and it started doing so in shorter intervals. Naruto was probably able to recover from the surge in two months, but with the way it is now, there is no way he can last when he is injected twice a month. I'm no expert, you'd have to ask Biwako, but my guess would be that his body is starting to break down. So if Naruto realized this, and somehow learned that you kept the true state of his arms a secret from him... well, we have a motive."

Minato sighed. "In any case, we should get her to Biwako, just in case we're wrong."

Jiraiya looked at his arm. "And how do you suggest we do that?"

Kushina rolled her eyes, grabbed a blanket and threw it over Tsunami's twitching body, before wrapping her up in it. "Like this Jiraiya. How else?"

The older man raised his hands in defense. "Hey, I'm single and have never been a father, so how should I know how to take care of a child?"

"Men." The mother mumbled as she headed to see her good friend Biwako, who would probably not be amused to hear that they still hadn't told Naruto about his arms, and that said boy was now missing, looking at his room most likely because he ran away. The two men followed her like obedient puppies.

As they headed to Biwako, knowing that they would soon get a scolding like little children, Minato felt like the weight of the world had been dropped on him. How could he have not noticed what was going on? Kushina had told him that Tsunami was one of the reasons Naruto had no friends, disturbing as it was. He and Kushina exchanged glances, and knew that they had made the same decision. After Tsunami was back up, there would be some changes. For both their children.

* * *

While his sister's life would soon change completely, both mentally and physically, Naruto learned that he had made a minor miscalculation.

When he had checked the maps for his destination, he had looked at Shinobi-routes. With those routes, his goal would be only half a day's travel away, but posing as a normal civilian, he could not just run through treetops and up cliffs, and most importantly, he was stuck with clear roads, and couldn't just travel in a straight line. Even more, he forgot that as a secluded place they didn't have the means to pass over so easily

So instead of half a day, it would take an entire day, if he walked through the night and sea, before he arrived at his goal, The Land of Waves. Still, there was nothing Naruto could do but start walking.

* * *

** I have to admit. I thought that this chapter would be my original waypoint from now on, but I forgot the important things like his way of letting them know he left and Tsunami's surge. If you didn't notice I changed those parts a bit. More his way of leaving than her surge. I only added the memories and those I'll explain next chapter. If I want. I'm not completely sure. Yes you read correctly at the end. He isn't going to the Fire Temple. That's Thanatos' story, even if he hasn't updated… seriously before you start complaining. Read the reasons: he has a place that doesn't have Shinobi, he has the perfect environment for his Suiton Jutsu, with so many small islands and mangrove swamps, he can hide perfectly from prying eyes and continue his studies alone. Besides I want it that way. I've got a few ideas that most of you would guess… Anyway remember to read my other story I'm going to update that one first since I worked out the kinks I had with it and the characters. REVIEW! **


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